


A True Bond

by whenimdeadillrest



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe, Dragon!Iruka, Fluff and Angst, Fuedal Era Japan, Human Trafficking, KakaIru Mini Bang 2020, Knotting, M/M, Mating Bites, Mating Bond, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Samurai!Kakashi, Smut, Soulmates, Youkai and Demons, how to spot a naruto story by me
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-26
Updated: 2020-07-24
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:07:17
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 29,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24920548
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whenimdeadillrest/pseuds/whenimdeadillrest
Summary: Hatake Kakashi breaks up an illegal human trafficking auction only to come face to face with a dragon.
Relationships: Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka
Comments: 37
Kudos: 208
Collections: KakaIru Mini Bang 2020





	1. To learn a name

**Author's Note:**

> Hello and welcome! This is my contribution to the KakaIru Minibang or Soulmates/Urban Legends. I went a little off script with this one, but I had a lot of fun writing it! <3 I always have enjoyed dragon!Iruka and wanted to try my hand at it.
> 
> The story is mostly complete, only editing the final chapters left. I made most of the stuff up in here, as is my privilege as an author. Thank you to all the moderators who created and maintained the event! You guys are awesome. And, of course, thank you to the readers who give my little story a shot, I sincerely appreciate it. 
> 
> Enjoy~

The village market was in full swing by the time Kakashi made it by mid afternoon.

Kakashi ambled through the crowd with two of his dogs at his feet, the crowd parting before him. The fear in the civilian’s gazes did nothing to him, and he took a sardonic humor in how they made his path easier to travel for him. The mask and one eye visible do a lot of his work for him.

Goroku and Bisuke sniffed the grounds around them, their tongues hanging out in the humid heat of the coastal town. Merchants called out their wares and haggled their prices with customers. Kakashi made a few stops of his own, admiring a piece of jewelry or strand of fabric that catches his eye.

Bisuke lets out a low yip of attention. Kakashi glances down to the dog and over at the direction his snout pointed. He sees a pair of burly men with swords strapped to their waists corner a street merchant. They both wear their hair tied low on their necks, their yukatas grey and purple in the colors of the Sound Village. 

Kakashi pays for his yakitori and munches on the chicken as he makes his way up the crowded street towards them, his ears naturally sensitive enough to catch their voices only after two steps forward, the dogs disappearing from his side at a twitch of his fingers.

_ “Delivery came in? _ ” one of the men. Scarred lip. 

_ “B-boat got in this morning, Haru-sama, sir.” _ The merchant stutters out. Bingo. His last lead mentioned a Haru as a a supply runner for the human trafficking ring he’d been tracking.

_ “Better have. Heard we got a big catch this time around. Pure as gold.” _ Another burly man. Hmm... Chipped Ear, Kakashi decides to call him. They share a sinister laugh (how original) before pushing the merchant to the side, sending him crashing into a cart of cabbages, sending the round vegetables rolling on the ground. 

Knowing his dogs were already tailing their lead, Kakashi takes the time to help the merchant bring the cabbages back onto the cart. The merchant is still shook up from his encounter with the gang-boys, and his hands shake so bad he drops a cabbage. Kakashi catches it before it could hit the ground.

“A-ah, thank you, Samurai-sama. Thank you,” the merchant anxiously bows to him.

“Ma, don’t bother with the ‘-sama.’ it’s no trouble, no trouble at all. Anything to help...those thugs looked like they were giving you some trouble.” The merchant freezes at the words before continuing his task of organizing the cabbages. 

“Thank you, Samurai-san. A cabbage for the road?”

Kakashi leaves him before replying, a hand waving behind him, following the trail of the two armed thugs instead. He weaves between the wooden buildings and shops before the land opens up to a beach, the dirt giving way to sand and cattail grasses.

He looks around and spots Shiba poking out from the trees on one side and follows him. Eventually, a loud voice yelling out over a crowd of people reaches his ears. He continues forward, slouching in his kimono and hakama, his geta crunching seashells under foot, sweat absorbing into the cloth of his mask.

The trees break apart and reveal the illegal slave market. Kakashi’s eyes flit around over the cover of his book and counts twenty-two people in the vicinity, five of them bound in various chains and ropes near a raised platform in the center of the crowd. He sees the two thugs from earlier behind the imprisoned slaves, casting their whips and forcing them up on the pallets to be auctioned.

Kakashi sees four other Sound samurai to the left, all nicely standing together just waiting for him to stroll up and slice their heads off in an easy kill.  _ Perfect.  _ He picks up a small movement behind the lined up slaves, all chained together at the necks, and sees the small form of Pakkun in position, three others hiding in the tree line behind him.

Kakashi surreptitiously makes his way into the crowd, making sure to jingle his coin purse as he tucks away his book into his inner robes.

He has one hand on his sword at the ready. The Sound samurai are tense but not suspicious, eyes glancing around them to keep an eye out, but patiently letting the market continue. Kakashi is just about ready to give the signal to strike, when a loud, inhumane snarl catches his attention, along with an uproar in the crowd.

On the raised center platform, a man falls to his knees as he is pushed on. Kakashi feels his entire body shudder and warm at the sight of the most beautiful creature he has ever set his eyes upon: the man is of darkend, caramel skin, with a scar running along the tops of his cheeks and the bridge of his nose. His lips are pulled back in a fearsome show of sharpened canines, his teeth red from the blood running down from his broken nose. He is wearing a torn set of blue and white ceremonial robes, the fabric dirtied in muck and blood, wet from the sea, and hanging off of his shoulders.  _ Beautiful,  _ Kakashi thinks, stunned, his gut twisting and sinking low.

He feels like everything slowed down around him just to meet those eyes. Is this love at first sight? Is this what those authors always wrote about, poets serenaded about, and now Kakashi himself is experiencing it?

_ He must have been picked up in the Water tribes, _ Kakashi thinks fainty. The man snaps his teeth when a slave-master comes to grip his chin, but cries out when he is painfully whipped into a forced submission. The captor yanks the man by his hair, a long, dark auburn that reaches all the way down his back and thighs, and spins him around to show the crowd the tattoos running along his spine.

Kakashi watches, stunned.  _ Those are dragon clan tattoos.  _ Kakashi’s heart beats loudly in his ears.  _ That’s a dragon! _

The world rushes quickly in at the sound of a dog bark-- Uhei. He whips his sword out and blocks the Sound samurai, a woman, as she tries to catch him unawares.

“Hatake Kakashi,” she growls at him, her teeth grinning menacingly. “Heard you were coming by. You’re not getting away this time.” Kakashi grunts from his defensive stance and pushes her back. She jumps farther back, keeping her distance as her partners fall in a circle around him.

The crowd disperses in fearsome cries as the four Sound Samurai surround him, their swords drawn. Kakashi hears the prisoners being hauled away behind him, their struggles loud against their captors. Kakashi makes the split-second decision and changes tactics.

Generations of the Hatake clan once lived in peace with dragons--many of them bonded in blood, battle, and even love. There was no way Kakashi would stand-by and watch as a damned dragon was sold and treated as a  _ slave,  _ not when they were practically extinct _.  _ While Kakashi was far and long removed from his ancestral lands, he couldn't find it in himself to ignore the surge of  _ protectiveness _ that rose in him at the sight of him, and it doubled at the sight of his tattoos.

He whistles sharpy and immediately his dogs break out from the trees to attack. The Sound swordsmen are distracted enough for Kakashi to release two hidden knives into their throats, killing them almost instantly in a short spurt of blood. 

He runs forward and pierces the stomach of the grey-haired samurai with his sword, bringing the blade up to ensure his death. The man coughs up blood before Kakashi kicks him off with the flat of his foot, spinning to block and perry the woman’s strike against his backside. Her blade digs into his shoulder, and Kakashi clenches his jaw at the sharp bite of pain.

He focuses his chakra and lets it climb through his blade, satisfactory watching as lightning arches out rapidly and into his enemy, sending her body in spasms on the ground, effectively paralyzing her. Kakashi spins at the sound of one of his dogs yelping in pain.

The slave handler barely has time to think before Kakashi has his sword slicing across his neck. The dogs continue to bark away from the auction site and towards the shore, where the remaining three slave handlers are making their way to a sail boat.

_ Oh no you don’t.  _ Kakashi closes the distance between them in seconds on just his two feet. One of the handlers sees him and panics, driving his own sword across one of the prisoner’s necks, the other following suit. “No!” Kakashi yells. They obviously had been ordered to kill them if the auction was compromised, not wanting to leave live witnesses.

The dragon is fighting against the shackles and golden ropes wrapped around him, the last one alive. Kakashi watches, amazed, as the gorgeous man shoots up from his kneeling position in the shallow waters and latches onto the man’s neck with his teeth, his shackled hands at his shoulders, his fingers curled like claws where they dig into skin. The man releases a choked sound as the dragon rips his throat out with his own teeth, a loud squelching sound tearing across the space between him and Kakashi.

Kakashi slows down just feet away from the massacre, the boat limply rocking on the water behind him, anchored to the shore.

The chained man spits out the blood and meat as he brings his gaze up to Kakashi in a threatening glare, his lips pulled back from his bloodied teeth in a snarl.

Up this close, Kakashi finds the man to be even more beautiful than before, despite the gruesome act. More likely even in light of it. The man’s skin is dark and smooth, characteristic of the natives of the Water Tribes. His ceremonial robes give away a noble position--the silks well woven with the embodiment of scales and clouds but torn and ruined by physical abuse and a hardened journey.

Kakashi takes in all the details in minute moments, his dogs coming around him in a slow circle, not quite threatening but weary of the stranger. Kakashi takes in the man’s bruised and bloodied wrists and ankles, the whip marks that peek just over his shoulders. He notes the man’s trembling frame, indicating him to be in great pain.

Kakashi slowly lowers his sword and relaxes his stance, sheathing the blade before untying it from his waist and tossing it onto the sand, mindful of the rising tide. He crouches into the surf, the water reaching mid-thigh as he puts his weight back on his heels and raises his palms up in surrender.

“I don’t mean you any harm,” he tells him. He feels half the pack break off from behind him to set up a wide perimeter. By the sounds of it, they have a scant few minutes before the local authorities arrive, and Kakashi still has to collect his bounty. The man narrows his eyes suspiciously before yelping in pain as a large wave crashes into him, knocking off his balance. Kakashi darts forward to catch him before he falls under the water. The man gasps against his chest, trembling, before his eyes roll into the back of his head and he loses consciousness.

Kakashi swiftly takes care of the chains, his index and middle finger held tightly with a glow of chakra sharpening around them to form a small chakra-blade, cutting them with ease. The gold cord, however, must be magically enforced--it does not give way. The way it grows intangible through his hands provides further evidence to the fact. Kakashi thinks that might be why the man wasn’t able to take to his scales, knowing a fully grown dragon was capable of taking every man down that had held him captive with ease. At least he can now carry the man to safety. Kakashi maneuvers the dragon’s form onto his shoulders and starts to make his way back to the auction site.

The dogs have already bound the Sound samurai with their jaws, and Kakashi sends a prayer to his ancestors for signing the family contract with the Hidden Cloud of Dogs generations ago in a moment of gratitude. The woman is still paralyzed, and her eyes dart around her in fear. “Just need the heads. Uhei, the scroll?”

“You got it, boss!” Uhei barks as she pulls out the storage scroll from her pouch. Kakashi stands forward and, after adjusting his hold on the man on his shoulders, releases his sword and cuts her head clean off. 

“Pack it up. We’re leaving early.”

They make their way to the main land through the wood, not stopping until they are miles away, the dogs working to cover the tracks of their trail.

When they reach his safe house--and abandoned witch’s hut--Kakashi kicks the door open and lays the humanoid dragon on the straw cot down on his frontside, knowing the whip marks to be still to fresh to lie on. The man is flushed and sweaty with fever, but the color on his cheeks do nothing to lessen the dragon’s beauty. Kakashi carefully brushes the long hair to the side, and sympathetically winces at the marks that have grown infected, no stranger to the cruel bite of a whip.

Kakashi heads out into the garden behind the hut to collect the herbs for a healing poultice. He pats on the dogs as they run beside him, making their way around the small clearing to make clamp, a small collection of wood for the fire already knee high. 

He has three nights before the bounty is due. Kakashi doesn’t think the dragon will wake in that time, but it’s better not to take the chance. “Uhei,” he snaps his fingers to call the dog. He crouches down when she runs up to him and scratches her underjaw. “Make the delivery. Don’t forget to collect in full.”

“Can Urushi come with me this time? Goruko got us in trouble stealing sausages at the last village!”

“Hey! I was  _ trying _ to make sure we weren’t going to  _ starve _ to death!”

“Shaddap you mutt!”

“Takes one to know one!”

“Enough,” Kakashi sighs. Usually, he would take humor in their antics, but the night is growing cold, and he is losing precious daylight. “Hurry. I’ll expect you tomorrow for lunch. Bring the standard supplies.”

“Got it, boss!” Uhei and Urushi bark before scattering. Kakashi pumps out two large bucketfuls of water and fills the trough for the dogs. He fills two more before bringing it inside the hut, where he can see the dragon has begun to shiver again.

Kakashi works to kindle a fire in the hearth before beginning to make a poultice from the herbs. If he times it right, he should still be able to arrive in Tea Country by the next full moon still twenty days away. He opens a bottle of sake and takes a swig, gulping it down and relishing its burn.

His gaze crosses back over to the dragon again, entranced. He wonders if his guest would travel with him. At the very least, he can offer safe passage back to the Water Tribes after he finishes his business in Tea Country.

Until then, Kakashi is glad to honor the spirits of his clan and nurse the dragon back to health. It is the least he could do.

\----

When his father was alive, and still in good health, before the ooze of self-destruction seeped into his every pore, he told Kakashi stories.

Hatake Sakumo told his beloved son tales of their family history. The Hatake were once a great and powerful clan, known to all across the lands of Japan. They were fierce with their swords and swift on their feet, their family lines blessed with the blood of the great dog demon, the Great Inu, which endowed the Hatake with preternatural senses and skill.

It was said that once, long ago, their ancestor Hatake Hitori had made the first contract with the dog demon’s hellhounds, creating a tradition passed down from generation to generation, bonded in blood and spirit.

“Bonded?” a young Kakashi asked, aged by four years. He is sitting at the low table before the hearth with his father, the house long grown cold and empty of other inhabitants for years now.

Sakumo smiled softly at his son, his eyes unfocused. “Yes, my son. This bond would allow you to create a band of brotherhood. You would rely on them as they would you, never leaving your side and fighting strong in your battles.”

“Hm,” Kakashi hummed, curious. “Can you only bond with a dog?”

Sakumo lifted his eyebrows, surprised where he shouldn’t really have been, knowing his son to be as inquisitive as his mother once was, before her untimely death. “Well, at the beginning, before the great samurai Hitori, when the Hatake were still a nomadic people, we did not walk the lands as we do today.”

Kakashi looked up from his calligraphy. Didn’t walk the lands? What did he mean? “What do you mean? How would you cross the great rivers, or the mountains, or swamps, if not with your two feet?”

“Well,” Sakumo leaned in real close, bringing over a sheet of canvas that he’d had hiding under a scroll. “Before we came together under Hitori, we roamed freely in the skies.” 

“The skies?”

“Yes, child, the skies. Before we settled here, in the Grasslands, we roamed the clouds, bonded to the once great Dragon Clans of Fire.” Sakumo held up the painting of a great dragon, it’s body serpentine and red, it’s horns threatening and mouth gaped open to spew out a massive flame.

Kakashi tried his best to keep his usually stoic face in place, but could not help the widening of his eyes or the sight drop of his mouth. “Dragons? But they’ve been gone for years!”

“This was well before the genocides, when the lands lived in peace with another. This magic, you see, that allows us to create our bonds, to strengthen our packs, were first given to use by the fire dragon of the East Winds. The dragons have a way to bond with another like no other--they can link their minds.” At this, Sakumo grew quiet and forlorn. Kakashi recognized the look from when his father would lay down in his room for days, unseeing and not speaking to him no matter how hard Kakashi tried to get his attention.

“Many Hatake were chosen to bond with the dragons, traveling the skies and over the seas wherever they saw fit. It was harmonious, peaceful. Legend says that Hitori’s great grandmother, Wakumi, paired with the great fire dragon Zuko, and together they gifted our family with the Call of Lightning, the first instance of a True Bond.”

“A true bond, father?”

Sakumo brought his eyes back to his son. “A gift from the dragons--a complete bonding of mind, body, heart, and soul. No truer compatibility exists. Soulmates, some would say. The energies exchanged are of legend, god-like in it’s power and severity, as well in it’s gentleness. But, as legends go, none have existed since. And the dragon genocides cost lives on the Hatake clans, as well, which is why Hitori-sama went through such lengths to bring our family back to its full potential.”

Kakashi ruminates over all the information swirling in his head. It was a lot! “Will I ever get to see a dragon, father?”

Sakumo chuckled and ruffled his son’s hair, standing and straightening out his hakama. “If you were so lucky. One could only hope some of them survived those wars, just as we have. If you ever do, Kakashi--it is your duty to help in whatever way you can. We owe the dragon tribes a great debt for what they blessed our lines with. Now! It’s time for dinner. Pack up your things and clear the table.”

As they ate their dinner and got ready for bed, Kakashi could not stop thinking about the tales his father told. He had been familiar with the great Hitori-sama, and he had even gotten to know his father’s own hellhound personally, a great, big, large wolf that looked more demon than a dog named White Fang. But  _ dragons? _ It seems almost unbelievable, but his father never lies to him.

As he stares out the window of his room and into the pale moon resting in the sky, Kakashi feels a sense of great pride and awe at the thought of his ancestors once roaming with dragons. He thinks of his ancestor Wakumi who shared a true-bond with a dragon that allowed her to call down lightning from the sky. 

His eyes begin to drift and flutter shut, the sounds of the soft breeze lulling him to sleep. In his dreams, he pictures himself on a dragon, riding through the sky across mountain tops, laughing as the lightning tickles his feet, the blue scales under him a comforting heat in the cool clouds.

\------

Kakashi wakes up to the feeling of a knife against his throat. 

He smells the scents of his dogs all around him and is immediately comforted, if a bit confused. Why hadn’t they warned him of danger? He blinks his eyes open to see the humanoid form of the dragon snarling menacingly at him, his teeth bared and bloody. He’s even more beautiful up close, with his full attention on Kakashi. He glances around from his bedroll next to the fire and sees his pack watching the scene with varying looks of interest, mostly none.

“Don’t move,” the man growls at him. His voice is accented in a water tribal lilt, familiar enough to identify the country but not the island. Kakashi wonder’s exactly what dialect the man must use for it to be so unfamiliar to Kakashi. “Who are you? Why did you bring me here?”

Goruko walks up the man and licks the hand that holds the knife to Kakashi’s throat. The man doesn’t even bat an eye. “Well?” It’s dark, still. The glowing embers of the dying fire illuminate the man’s face, making him more fearsome and ethereal.

“My name is Hatake Kakashi. I mean you no harm,” Kakashi tries to say it as calmly as possible, careful not to move or else he’d nick his neck on the blade.

The answer seems to surprise the man, his grip loosening and his eyebrows rising for just a moment before he pulls himself down closer to Kakashi’s face, practically nose to nose. Kakashi feels his heart rate increase at their proximity, and his nose is assaulted with the heavy stench of healing herbs, aloe, and burnt sage that has him fiercely wondering what the man actually smelled like under it all.

The dragon brings his face down to the juncture of Kakashi’s neck, and sniffs at his skin, taking a long, deep inhale right under his ear, tickling the hairs at the nape of his neck. It is all Kakashi can do to repress the shiver that attempts to travel across his body.

He is unprepared, however, for the lick up the cartilage of his ear, and therefore can hardly help his undignified yelp and flinch at the sensation. The dogs bark in laughter all around them. The dragon pulls away and sits back on his heels where he is kneeling beside Kakashi’s bedroll, bemused. 

Kakashi sits up and wipes at the wet spot on his neck. “Oi,” he grumbles. “Quit it!” He waves a hand over the barking peanut gallery. The dogs take no head and instead crowd around the dragon, nipping at his torn robes and licking any exposed skin.

“Show me your clan mark,” the dragon commands. Kakashi looks up to him and sees now that the man must still be in a great deal of pain, his body flushed and slightly sweaty despite the chill of the night, his limbs trembling.

Kakashi fights back his indignation at revealing such an intimate thing. He reminds himself that this man is actually a  _ dragon _ , probably the last of his kind or close to it, and he had just been taken by a stranger after being kidnapped by slave traffickers. Kakashi had also seen his already, when he had been pulled to the platform. He has the ground to distrust Kakashi, so Kakashi bites back his sigh and pushes his robes to the side, revealing his clan mark on his right pectoral, the ink blue and stark against his pale skin, unfaded despite its age.

The sight of it relaxes the dragon, and Kakashi watches as his body deflates, his eyes blinking away sudden tears. The dogs around start to whimper in sympathy, and the man raises a tanned hand to rub their heads and ears, all of them, one by one. Kakashi feels a strange fondness at the gesture.

“I showed you my mark and gave you my name. Won’t you do the same?” Kakashi asks him tentatively. He slowly rises out of his bedroll, crouching low and making way to kindle the fire to grow, hightendly aware of the pair of golden eyes watching his every movement.

The dragon raises a hand in an attempt to brush his hair over his neck, but aborts it with a sharp wince and a sharp hiss of breath. Kakashi stands from his crouch and crosses the few feet between them, the dogs rusting out of the way so he can kneel opposite the man, who watches him with furrowed brows and nostrils flared, tense again. 

Kakashi makes sure to broadcast every one of his movements as he slowly reaches up to gently tug the man’s long, dark hair in a soft twist, bringing it around to rest on his right shoulder and down his front, pooling in his lap like russet ink. When Kakashi meets his eyes again, he feels an unknown heat stir in his belly. The dragon’s eyes are heavy and dark, piercing him to the earth beneath him. 

After a moment's silence, Kakashi finally finds his voice. “I brought you here to heal after--”

“Why?” the man interrupts, his eyes narrowed. He still clutches the knife in his hand.

“I was at the auction to stop it. When I saw you, on the platform...I saw your marks. It would be remiss of me to ignore the calling of my clan.” The man flinches when Kakashi speaks of the platform, and looks away into the dark of the forest.

“You really are a Hatake, then, to be so familiar to know...”

“I wouldn’t say familiar...” Kakashi trails off. How is he to explain his childhood obsession with everything to do with the legends of his clan? Stories seemingly so great and full of wonder they seemed just that: stories? “My father once told me the stories of the Fire Tribes and the Skywalkers. I recognized the marks from a scroll.”

Silence envelops them again, the only sound being the crackling of the fire and the soft snores of the dogs having fallen asleep around them. Before Kakashi could break it, the other man beat him to it by letting out a thick, wet sob.

Kakashi flinches at the sound, his heart breaking when the man seems to fold into himself but stops when it obviously pulls on the wounds on his back, causing his tears to come faster. Kakashi feels himself want to comfort him, somehow, but isn’t even sure he would be welcomed, a stranger to this man. And even before that, what does he think he’s doing? He’s never been one to comfort anyone besides his dogs. The last person he’d given any sort of comfort has been dead and buried for a long time now, a stab wound running through her chest and back.

Still, the dragon’s cries are painful and something in Kakashi reciprocates. He feels his own aura become affected, a despair seeping into his natural energy so deeply he wonders if it had anything to do with the fact the other man was a dragon.

The pack wakes up and all crawl close to the other man, snuggling up to his body in a show of warm support. The man cries so hard and for so long that he ends up falling asleep against Bull, the dog’s large frame more than enough support to hold the lithe, weakened figure. It was easy to tell the other man was underweight, likely from malnutrition. Kakashi tried his best to feed him water whilst he slept, but didn’t think he’d be able to spoon anything into him while his back was still so injured.

Kakashi waits a few more minutes to make sure the other man was truly asleep before cradling his body to his chest and taking careful steps back into the hut to lay him face down on the cot again. Goruko sets the knife the man had been carrying down by his hand and then settles on the straw mat below him.

Kakashi gently pulls the man’s hair over to the side where it wouldn’t get caught in his wounds, and sets to make a fresh poultice again. Luckily, the infection seems to have sweated itself out, and the whip-wounds have started to scab over evenly. He, not for the first time, wishes he had his sister by his side and not buried in the abandoned plot of his ancestral lands. He pushes the thought away.

He sets the dogs to bring in a fresh bucket of water to boil over the hearth fire of the cot. He relights the sage bundle, setting it in the abalone shell under the dragon’s cot. Soon, the water is transferred to a new pot, cooled, and he is ready to redress the wounds of the man’s back.

Kakashi ties his sleeves back and uses a stray band of cloth to hold the hair back from his face before beginning. He works methodically, making sure not to jostle or reopen any of the wounds knowing the scabs were still delicate and not quite strong enough to withstand much pressure. The back is a dark expanse of beautifully tanned skin under the cruel map of the whip marks. Kakashi can see that some of them were on their way to healing before the new ones marked his body at the slave auction, and he can do almost nothing to stop the rage that crests over him at the idea of someone hurting this creature before him.

When all the wounds have been cleaned and dried with a fresh cloth, Kakashi reaches over for the mortar and begins to slowly spread the concoction onto the wounds. The evening is quiet, and Kakashi loses himself to the mechanics of it. When he is about halfway done, he catches the eyes of the dragon staring at him. It’s the first time he’d woken while Kakashi had started dressing his back, and Kakashi feels himself flush, suddenly aware of how intimate his position is. He is no healer, and has not had much experience being on this side of the cot. What he knows has been passed to him by watching his sister, Rin, over the years before her death.

Kakashi pauses, wondering now if he should stop. He leans back on his heels and waits for some indication from the man below him. He watches as the dragon’s eyes begin to lose their golden glow, their heat, and die out into a dull brown before his eyelids slowly shut and he turns his head in the other direction.

Kakashi waits for a moment before slowly continuing.

\--------

It goes on like this for five days.

With each passing day, the dragon stays awake for longer periods of time. His wounds begin to heal enough for him to have more movement and control of his body, but he spends his waking hours quiet and distant, his aura radiating pain, regret, and despair. Kakashi hasn’t ever been attuned to another’s chakra so acutely before, and has trouble himself deflecting the emotions. He has not spoken since that first night, and still has yet to give his name.

On the fifth day, Kakashi is walking back to the campsite from a perimeter check with two rabbits strung across his back for skinning when he hears it.

It’s a high pitch whistle of some kind, the melody wafting through the trees in long, somber measures. Kakashi drops the rabbits by the fire sight and follows the sound behind the hut and through the gardens. When the trees break, he finds the dragon kneeled at the side of the small stream.

He is still in his human form, something Kakashi thinks is maybe related to the golden ropes tied around his wrists and ankles. He looks incredibly sad. His hair is tied into a loose braid and pools in the grass next to him. His robes are still stained, if cleaned, and engulf him-- they are at least three sizes too big on him. The shoulder of one side falls with his movements, exposing the skin of his collarbones and shoulder. He is holding two leaves up to his lips, the source of the whistling sound--a leaf flute, much like what a geisha might use.

Kakashi watches, enraptured. Even the pack are not immune to his melody, all calmly laying on the grasses surrounding him, ears trained on the music. Everything in him is wound tight to the man before him: the shine of his hair in the sun--oily and tousled, but beautiful all the same--the tan of his skin, the small width of his wrists. Kakashi shifts thoughtlessly and the crunch of a twig beneath his foot causes the music to stop abruptly as the dragon jolts his head to the side towords him.

Kakashi raises his hands up in a placating gesture. “Ah, sorry, Tatsu-sama, I was drawn by your melody. Didn’t mean to startle you.”

The man, or as Kakashi has started mentally calling him, Tatsu, stares at him before barking out a laugh, a hand coming up to cover his face. Kakashi blinks in surprise. He hasn’t heard anything from Tatsu but silence and pain.

“T-tatsu-sama? I don’t think I’ve ever...”

“Well, what am I to call you if you wont give me your name?” Kakashi lightheartedly teases. Well. He hopes it’s lighthearted. He knows he can have trouble emoting on voice alone, paired with his mask and closed eye, he understands that his delivery isn’t his best skill at times.

The dragon sobers at the thought, pursing his lips at him, his eyes serious. “The last man I gave my name sold me like a piece of meat. How will you fair, I wonder?”

“I would never dishonor my family name with such an act,” Kakashi responds almost reflexively, appalled. He really wouldn’t. He may have accumulated many regrets in his lifetime, and the Hatake name has many smudges on its ledger, but he would  _ never _ harm a dragon, especially one so obviously hurt and weakened. He never even thought he’d ever meet one--meeting one like this almost feels like a childhood dream come true. He only wishes it were under better circumstances.

Tatsu scoffs at him in disbelief. Kakashi makes his way over to sit by him, leaving a respectable distance between them. He toes off his sandals and peels off his socks to lay his feet in the stream. Thankfully, the dogs are quick to come to his defense.

“Boss would never hurt you!”

“He took an oath--to protect and serve!”

“Yeah! He gives the best belly rubs!”

“And he’s been helping you heal!”

“Yeah! And he hasn’t created that poultice since--”

“Alright! Alright,” Kakashi stops them from getting too rowdy, uncomfortable with them giving his personal life details away in such a way. He sighs. “I really wouldn’t harm you. I did take an oath of protection under the Fire Lord. And even before all that, I owe you much more for the blessings bestowed upon my family from yours.”

The other man turns away, petting Goruko who had climbed onto his lap. He peers at Kakashi through the side of his golden eye from under his long, dark eyelashes. Kakashi’s heart skips a few beats.

“You have a strong bond with your hounds...where is the rest of your clan?”

Strangely, Kakashi is compelled to respond to the question honestly. Usually, such statements send a deep pang through his heart. But looking at the other man, Kakashi wants nothing but to give him his most true self. Maybe it was because Kakashi knew he was a dragon. Kakashi is quick to turn that thought over, however, as he thinks it maybe has less to do with his species than it has to do with the man sitting before him.

“It’s just me, now.” The dogs all bow their heads and let out a small whimper, Bisuke a soft howl. They feel the shared sorrow at the loss of their pack members lost to the years and wars, the fighting to survive. Kakashi reaches a hand over to pet Pakkun, who always gravitates to his side. He notices how the other man tracks the movement, then as he turns slowly around to watch the other dogs.

Tatsu says it so softly, so quietly, that Kakashi sure any other normal man would have missed it. 

Kakashi is no normal man.

“It’s just me, too,” he says, twirling his leaf flutes. It’s quiet between them, now, but it is a companionable quiet--charged not with tension but a deep empathy. 

As they rest there by the stream, listening to the quiet bubbling of the water, Kakashi leans back to rest his head on his hands, elbows out. It’s a nice day. He pulls out his book from his pocket and begins to read through the haikus he’s had memorized for years.

After a while, Tatsu starts playing his leaf whistle again. The notes still carry a sadness in their melody, but not as heavy as before. It’s nice.

\-------

The next week passes in a comfortable peace.

Each morning, they wake at daybreak. They share a breakfast. Tatsu turns out to be quite proficient with a blade, and takes over skinning and pelting their game. Kakashi cooks the rice and soups.

The afternoons vary, usually including a nap on Tatsu’s part and a perimeter sweep on Kakashi’s. The area is fairly secluded and far from any main roads, but it would be in bad form to slack on his duty on this. He also makes it a point to check or reset any traps for new kills. 

Sometimes, they will stroll to the stream and sit together, like the first time, saying nothing but feeling everything. Kakashi can’t shake the incredible  _ awareness _ he has for Tatsu--he barely has to focus his energy to feel the other man, to know where he is. And by the way Tatsu always manages to find him without the dog’s help, no matter how deep or off the path in the forest he may be in, Kakashi thinks maybe he’s not the only one.

The words they exchange are few and far in between, mainly used for greetings, directions, or simple questions. Tatsu doesn’t seem to want much for conversation, but does enjoy learning of the pack. He greets them all by name, now, and Kakashi has caught the faded edges of conversations Tatsu holds with them on more than one occasion.

Kakashi spends a couple of these afternoons whittling. The look of surprise on Tatsu’s scarred face was well worth the hours and splinters it took to whittle a palm-sized comb, the edges rounded and sanded down to fit smoothly in his hand. 

Kakashi watched Tatsu comb through his hair with a heavy weight in his chest one afternoon, hummingbirds flying in his stomach. Tatsu’s half-lidded golden eyes kept contact with Kakashi’s steel grey with every strand made anew.

The evenings are spent sharing a quiet meal and sharpening his blades. He gives Tatsu a proper blade to hold, instead of the medical scalpel he had salvaged from the hut and wielded as a knife. He also goes through his katas to maintain his physical stamina and reflexes. There is also something about going through his stances under the growing moonlight that grounds Kakashi in his reality, keeping him connected with the energies around him. 

If Kakashi needed any proof that he was not alone in feeling the growing, heavy atmosphere between them, the dark look that Tatsu had on his face when Kakashi looked up from sheathing his katana, sweaty and panting for breath, would be enough to convince him. That afternoon left Kakashi hungry for days.

By the end of the week, Kakashi tells Tatsu of his impending travel to one of the nearby villages in Tea Country. At first, Tatsu seemed to just shut down at the news. Worriedly, Kakashi assured him he would only be gone three days, and the dogs could stay behind with Tatsu. This seems to reassure Tatsu, and three days until the full moon Kakashi heads out, Tatsu’s worried face etched in his memory. Tatsu’s hair had been pulled into a low bun with the comb Kakashi whittled pinning it in place.

Kakashi makes it to the village that same night, the only establishment open being the inn and bar. He skips the bar and rents a room. The next morning he goes into the village square for the market day and makes his rounds of supplies, throwing in some extras when he catches sight of them. 

After dinner he goes to the inn.

The air is thick with opium and tobacco. There is a small stage where three geisha play their traditional guitars. Lamps line the ceiling and walls in small bursts of warm red glows. He makes his way to the back corner’s private suite and ducks inside.

“Kakashi-kun! Finally!” Jiraiya is waving his hand at him to sit down. 

“Jiraiya-sama,” Kakashi nods to him. “Trust you are as well as ever?”

“Well, how’s a man  _ not _ fine with such beautiful bodies around to admire?” He leers as he peaks through the curtain to look out at the stage.

Kakashi pours himself a cup of sake and throws it back before pouring another. “News?”

“Hmm,” Jiraiya sips at his own cup. “Those four you took care of are nothing but scratches. They were, however, the main ones for that region, so good for that. No leads yet...but there’s been a lot of chatter about the one-eyed man taking a slave for himself.” Jiraiya peers at him. “Never took you for one to own slaves.”

Kakashi rolls his eyes. “I don’t own him. He’s not my slave.”

“Ho? A ‘he’ is he? How interesting...My, my, Kashi-kun, if I didn’t know better I’d say you finally grew some balls and went and got a piece of ass for yourself!”

Kakashi is normally one to be baited so easily, but Jiraiya’s words remind him of Tatsu’s face when Kakashi caught him staring as he finished his moonlit practice, and it sends a heat across his face and ears. His mask may hide his blushing cheeks, but it does nothing for the tips of his ears.

Jiraiya bursts out laughing, sake flying out his nose. “Oh the gods! Thank you for hearing my prayers and accepting my offerings! Look at this boy! Oh, gods!” Kakashi does his best to refrain himself from killing him, his mind mapping out at least twenty-three ways he could make Jiraiya’s death a reality.

“Oh, hoo, hoo, hoo,” Jiraiya wipes a tear from his face. “Wow. I was mostly kidding. Your face! He really must be something else~” he sings. 

Kakashi ignores him. “Know of any curse breakers? I’ve got a rope magically protected from anything I’ve got.” 

Jiraiya thinks about it for a moment, chewing his bite of food. “I know a weaponsmith that might be able to help. Worked a couple times with him, good stuff. But he’s invitation only. I’ll send word when I get contact.”

They finished their meal and exchanged their goodbyes outside of the bar. “I’ll meet you on the next full moon. If that weaponsmith gives the okay, I’ll send a bird. Watch your back, Kakashi, these slavers don’t take kindly to their products being stolen.”

“He’s not a goddamn product,” Kakashi growls out, annoyed and slightly inebriated. 

Jiraiya covers his surprise with a quick smile and a pat to the shoulder. “Of course. See you, kid.”

Back in the inn, Kakashi tries his best to sleep but it proves unfruitful. Jiraiya’s warning echoes through his head and his anxiety rises at the thought of Tatsu in danger at the hut. Kakashi has lived there on and off for years. Never has he had any trouble with bandits or any other enemies. Still, he cannot quell the thrum of anxiety that runs through him, and in the late hours of the night, he packs his things and leaves.

He is glad to have followed his instincts when, after hours of traveling at a fast, chakra-boosted pace, Kakashi hears loud, vicious barking and yelling in the distance.

Kakashi immediately drops his pack from his back and  _ sprints, _ bursting through the trees with his sword drawn and deadly killing intent leaping out from his pores. He manages to kill two men in surprise before he turns to block a blade to his neck. He smells blood, fear, and anger in the air, permeating everything in a sickly tint.

He pivots and runs his blade across the man’s throat and spins to run behind the hut where he can hear the dogs barking. Kakashi crouches behind the garden shed to take in the scene before him. Out of the eight dogs he’d left behind, he sees only three-- Bull, Shiba, and Guroko--surrounding Tatsu, growling to fend off the three armed bandits circling them. 

Kakashi tightens his grip and darts, his eye widening when suddenly Tatsu stands tall and his eyes begin to glow yellow, his aura thickening and rising around him in a curl of yellow flames, the long braid of his hair floating up with the wind beginning to gust around him. Just as quick as it starts it’s gone when a black crackle of electricity sparks out from the golden cords wrapped around Tatsu’s wrists and ankles, engulfing him in what looks like a painful seizure before his eyes roll back and he drops.

Kakashi reaches him just in time to catch him before he hits the ground, his sword held high as he crouches in the dirt. He sends out a warning growl at the bandits, letting some of his youkai energy leek through his aura.

At that same moment, the growls of the rest of the pack sound out from the trees surrounding them, echoing Kakashi’s own. He tightens his arm around Tatsu, whose body was limp but still quaking with spasms. The bandits are bigger idiots than they look, because one comes forward with his blade aimed towards Kakashi’s neck. Kakashi twists his wrists and impales the man right through the neck and uses the momentum to twist his body to get the second one. The third yells out as the dogs clamp on his body, bringing him down and tearing his limbs.

It’s all over in seconds. 

Kakashi drops his sword and frets over Tatsu’s prone body. He looks pale, ashen, and Kakashi can only see the whites of his eyes when he tries to open a lid. Kakashi grabs at the golden cord--it looks like it's one long piece that had been wrapped around his limbs with no knot in sight to pull. Kakashi tries to cut it again with his chakra blade, to no avail. Not even a spark of that black lightning appears. From what Kakashi saw, it seems to be keeping Tatsu from accessing any of his dragon energy, hurting him when he’d tried to call it. 

Tatsu wakes up with a startled gasp as Kakashi is laying him down on the cot inside the hut minutes later. Kakashi catches his wrists as he punches out, shushing him. “Tatsu-sama, Tatsu--it’s me, it’s Kakashi, it’s alright,” he tells him.

Tatsu stares at him with wide eyes as he slowly releases the tension in his body, his wrists going limp in Kakashi’s grip. “Kakashi-san,” he breathes out. Kakashi helps him lay back down, brushing the hair from his face, clenching his hand into a fist when he notices his fingers shaking. The adrenaline still pumps powerfully through his veins because those men--and Tatsu had been-- if Kakashi hadn’t left the inn early--

He’s pulled out of the red haze of his thoughts at the feeling of Tatsu’s hand on his masked jaw, his thumb over the scar of his left eye. Kakashi realizes then that his eye had been open, and the red haze wasn’t entirely in his thoughts. He quickly shuts it, leaning into the hand involuntarily. 

A painful shiver takes over Tatsu again then, and Kakashi watches helplessly as Tatsu’s mouth clamps down so hard that blood leaks out from where he must have bit his tongue. Kakashi wipes it off. “Are you injured?” he asks him.

Tatsu takes a moment before replying. “No...sore. I just...with these bonds, I’ll never be free,” he finishes with a whisper, his eyes blurry with tears and shame. 

“I found a curse breaker. I think he might be able to help you,” Kakashi prays to the heavens that Jiraiya will work quickly and they’ll be able to head out to break these cursed bonds that so obviously cause Tatsu great pain.

Tatsu looks momentarily surprised. “You...you found someone that can break these bonds?”

“I went to the village to meet an old sensei. He says he knows of someone that can help. His bird should be arriving soon with more information.” Uhei and Shiba walk in the hut in that moment, holding Kakashi’s pack he’d abandoned in the forest to shed weight. “Sa, bring it here. Thank you. Did you get them all?”

Uhei barks. “Seven of them. No scents leaving. One still alive and waiting.”

“Not for long,” Shiba growls.

“Leave him to me. Take care of the others. Get the others to do a full sweep. Uhei, grab Bisuke and check the traps as you go.”

“Got it, boss!” they chorus.

Tatsu is sitting up in the cot when Kakashi turns back to him with his pack. Kakashi hands him a canteen of water, which Tatsu drinks gratefully. Kakashi uses his distraction to pull out the supplies he’d bought from the village and lays them on the cot beside Tatsu.

When he gets up to leave after starting a small fire in the hearth, he’s stopped by a grip on the sleeve of his haori. He turns back to see Tatsu looking down at Kakashi’s feet, his head dipped low and hiding his face. “Will you stay?” he hears Tatsu ask him, his hand clenching.

Kakashi feels something in his chest tighten along with the return of a hummingbird in his belly. He gently grabs Tatsu’s hand and lifts his chin with the other until he can look him in his honey eyes. “Of course, Tatsu-sama.”

Tatsu squeezes his hand before releasing it, his fingers shaking slightly as he moves a loose strand of hair behind his ears. “My name...my name is Iruka, Kakashi-san. Umino Iruka.”

Kakashi can’t stop the smile that twitches up on his lips, and doesn’t even try to. “Of course, Iruka-sama.” His smile turns into a grin when Tatsu--no,  _ Iruka-- _ lets out a breathless chuckle.

“Just ‘Iruka’ is fine.” Iruka smiles a small smile up at Kakashi, the corners of his eyes crinkling just a bit, the scar across his face serving only to make him more endearing. Kakashi’s hand moves from Iruka’s chin to his jaw, rubbing his thumb softly on the soft skin there. His stomach clenches when Iruka closes his eyes to lean into it.

“Get some rest, alright? I won’t let anything happen to you.”

As Iruka sleeps that night, Kakashi settles himself onto the floor next to him, his bedroll fitting just barely in the small space of the hut. The information he’d gotten from the last bandit before he killed him had been worrisome--they’d been hired to attack, waiting until he’d left his little cottage for the village. Their intel was tight enough that if Kakashi hadn’t given into his paranoia and left that inn early, they most certainly would have killed or captured Iruka. Kakashi will not let that happen. Never.

He will protect Iruka with his life


	2. The joining, part I

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the night of the attack, things change between him and Iruka.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks everyone for reading, leaving kudos, bookmarking, and commenting on my story! Wow! It's crazy to see the little "hit" counts go up every day!
> 
> I am so new to this fandom, came in at 2020 hello quarantine, but have zero regrets and a LOT of creative juices flowing! I've never written so much in my life, especially smut, but I sure have READ a lot of it, haha! Hope you enjoy this chapter <3 
> 
> This where the "Explicit" rating definitely starts to come into play~

After the night of the attack, things change between him and Iruka.

Kakashi can’t place what exactly had changed, but he knows that  _ something,  _ some barrier, must have fallen between them, as Iruka seems to be more...open, with Kakashi. He sits closer to him by the fire. He now openly watches him as he runs through his katas. Iruka reaches out to grip his sleeve or brush his fingers when Kakashi walks by. He wears the kimono that Kakashi had picked out for him in Tea, the tones of blue contrasting nicely with his dark skin. Kakashi catches him running his fingers along the embroidered birds along the hems on more than one occasion.

One afternoon Iruka asks him to comb his hair for him so that he could use the new weaponized hairpin Kakashi had gotten. He’d specifically picked it for it’s steel strength and how it had been sharpened for immediate use. 

They sit by the bubbling stream, the air fresh with a light breeze around them. Kakashi kneels behind Iruka as he takes the wooden comb he had whittled and starts at the ends, slowly working his way to the top. When it is all combed free of knots, Kakashi rubs oil into the hair to bring it to a shine and braids it into a loose plait on Iruka’s scalp, tightening as he works his way down the length. He rolls the hair into a bun and pins it in place with the silver accessory.

When Iruka doesn’t move from his position, Kakashi worriedly leans around to get a look at him. He is rewarded by an expression of peace on Iruka’s face, who blinks one eye open at him and gives Kakashi a small smile. “Thank you, Kakashi-san.”

Kakashi has to remind himself to breathe.

Jiraiya’s bird finally arrives the fourth day after the attack, and Kakashi reads the missive with a sense of relief, decoding the message with practiced ease. He turns from the edge of the campsite and makes his way to the gardens where he knows Iruka is plucking foods for their lunch.

Iruka is at the end of the first path, crouching as he picks strawberries from its vine. He looks over at Kakashi and gives him a blinding smile. Kakashi feels his heart stutter and speed up, along with a warmth ballooning in his belly. 

Iruka is quite beautiful under the sun, his hair shining in its rays and glinting when the pin catches the light. Kakashi breathes in his scent through his mask as he steps closer, and he can feel his blood stir in arousal before he clamps it down.

“Kakashi-san,” Iruka greets him, standing. “This fruit is so sweet!” This close, Kakashi can see the remnants of strawberries on the corner of Iruka’s lips. He’d obviously been unable to resist tasting the fresh fruit. Kakashi’s hand is up and rubbing the spot with his thumb before he even realizes. 

He watches, dazed, as a red tint takes over Iruka’s face before he opens his mouth and  _ licks _ the strawberry juice from Kakashi’s thumb, wrapping his lips around the digit before sucking slightly.

All breath leaves Kakashi’s lungs, a heat suddenly raging in his gut and groin. His scent must have changed, too, because Iruka closes his eyes and inhales deeply, tilting his head back as he leans his body closer to Kakashi, laying a steadying hand on his chest. 

Kakashi waits with his breath frozen in his lungs, a lump in his throat. Iruka slowly opens his eyes, the gold a darkened amber, before he drops his forehead down on Kakashi’s shoulder, his nose pressed against the line of his neck. Kakashi’s arms automatically come up around Iruka to hold him to his chest, encircling him in the warmth of his body.

As they stand there holding on to one another, the dogs romping in the grasses around them, Kakashi is struck with the realization that he doesn’t really know much about Iruka, other than that he’s a bounded dragon, the last of his clan, and has good reason to distrust him.

But Kakashi does know some things: the smell of his musk, his hair. The feel of his fingers against his. The soft hum he gives when Kakashi pulls the comb through his hair, lightly scratching his scalp. His laughter when he plays with the pack. Iruka’s soft breaths sleeping on the cot above him. The plush of his lips when he wakes in the mornings, still dazed from sleep and blinking slowly at Kakashi.

All of it coalesces into this thick, heavy  _ want _ in him to hold Iruka, to care for him, to give him anything and everything to make him happy. And in the root of it all, knowing that doing so would make  _ Kakashi _ happy _. _ Happy in a way he didn’t really know he’d been longing for, but knowing now that he’d just been waiting around for, wandering through his years until the day came where he met Iruka, a beautifully feral creature at first sight, ripping the throat of an enemy with his own teeth, his love at first sight.

After some time, Kakashi looks down to see Iruka had truly fallen asleep like this, his weight pressed against his own. He chuckles, knowing Iruka to be prone to naps in the afternoons. He wonders if it is more to do with his dragon nature or if it’s from his recovery from the attack. Regardless, Kakashi picks him up and cradles him to his chest as he walks to place him back on his cot.

Kakashi takes the time to pack up their camp site and gather supplies for their trip. Jiraiya’s note said that this weaponsmith was located in the Mountains of Iron, a week's travel from here. 

Luckily, it is late into the spring and the weather should be favorable for traveling, but Kakashi makes sure to pack some seals and spells along with warm clothing in preparation of the cold weather of the high altitudes. He is not sure how far he has to climb, but Jiraiya’s note said they’d be found when they got high enough. 

When Iruka wakes from his nap, Kakashi tells him of the missive. “We can leave as soon as tomorrow. Do you think you’ll be up for traveling that long?”

“Yes! Yes! Oh, Kakashi, thank you! I haven’t...I haven't left my island in so long, and the humans have been so cruel...I am grateful for you to take on this quest for me. Do you really think he’ll be able to break these?” Iruka holds up his wrists to emphasize the gold cords wrapped around tying them together. His expression is torn from elation to worry so quickly Kakashi walks over to him and places a hand on the nape of his neck, his hair having fallen out during his nap.

“Jiraiya-sama had great faith in him. We can at least try. And if he doesn’t, I’ll find someone else.” Iruka looks up at him in what looks like suspicion. 

“Why?” he whispers. “Why would you risk your life so much for me? You don’t even know me.”

Kakashi nervously rubs the back of his head, his stomach twisting at the question. “I made an oath---”

“No,” Iruka interrupts. He presses his body up against Kakashi, his hands held out to grip his forearms. “Tell me the truth. What’s in your heart?”

Kakashi hesitates, unable to give anything to Iruka other than the truth, especially when it’s asked of him so expectantly, but he is not sure how to articulate himself. “I’d always dreamed of meeting a dragon as a boy.”

It was the wrong thing to say, apparently, because Iruka shoves him away, his face reddened in anger. “That’s it, huh? Want a piece of a  _ dragon _ all for yourself? Sell my teeth, use my hide for armor?”

“No!” Kakashi says, sick at the thought of  _ anyone _ daring to come even close enough to Iruka to--to-- his thoughts cut off with a growl of frustration and anger. “I would never. And if anyone even tries to come near you, I’ll cut them down with my sword, rip them apart with my teeth for even  _ thinking _ of laying a hand on you!” Kakashi bares his teeth under his mask, and he feels his jaws ache at the loss of emotional control. The mere insinuation--the thought of harm coming to Iruka gets his blood boiling as if he’d just come upon those bandits surrounding Iruka all over again.

Iruka grows silent next to him.

“You--the moment I saw you, even before I saw your tattoos, I knew you were special. I knew I had to save you. I hoped--” he cuts himself off, looking away with a deep inhale through his mask. His fists clench at his sides and he feels his nails had lengthened into claws in his distress, little pricks of blood smearing in his palms.

Iruka watches him with rapt attention, his eyes roaming every inch of Kakashi as he speaks freely. “You hoped for what?” he asks him tentatively, wanting to hear more.

Kakashi clenches his eye shut before reaching up to slide his mask down to his neck, and when he looks back to Iruka it's with both eyes open. He ignores Iruka’s small gasp of surprise at the sight of Kakashi’s Crow Eye, and steps forward to hold his face in his hands, glad to not have been wearing his gloves so he can feel Iruka’s bare skin against his.

“I saw you and knew I had to know you. I hoped to pay my respects then, and tend to my duty as a Hatake to serve you. But now...none of that matters. I don’t look at you and see a duty to my clan. I don’t look at you and only see a dragon. I just see  _ you _ , Iruka. You are the most beautiful creature I’ve come to know in my life. And now, what I hope for, what I  _ dream _ for, is to be able to serve you as just me--just a man, just Kakashi.” Kakashi doesn’t wait for the other man to reply, needing his truth, his  _ full _ truth, to be heard without question, and kisses him with a firm press of his lips.

Kakashi feels Iruka take in a shaky inhale through his nose before he is pressing back, returning his kiss as his hands rise to the nape of his neck and grip the hair there. The world narrows down to just them. 

Kakashi can’t think of anything else but the feel of skin under his hands, fingers at his nape. The warmth of Iruka pressed against him. The slide of shy tongues. The shiver down Iruka’s spine as Kakashi slides his hands down to his hips. The small sighs against his lips. The scent of Iruka--something warm, and fresh, like cardamom and the scent of burning wood. The feel of Iruka pushing himself higher and wrapping his arms around Kakashi’s neck, pressing deeper and wider against his mouth, asking for more. The rush in his gut, the heat in his groin, the hummingbirds traveling all around his skin, vibrating with anticipation and just  _ Iruka-- _ only Iruka _. _

There is no doubt in Kakash’s mind that Iruka isn’t similarly affected. Iruka clutches at his shoulders in a firm grip, pulling at his hair as he releases a soft moan into his mouth when their hips connect. The feel of Iruka’s erection growing half-hard against his hip throws Kakashi over the edge--he breaks away from the kiss with a low growl and trails his lips down the line of Iruka’s neck, needing more contact, more skin, more of his  _ scent _ or else he’ll drive himself mad without it.

When Iruka starts to pull back from him, Kakashi holds him closer. He bites his neck, relishing in the soft moan of pleasure that it pulls from Iruka’s throat. But Iruka keeps stepping back, and Kakashi realizes he’s still holding his neck, that Iruka is pulling Kakashi along with him. 

After they stumble over some roots, Kakashi bites off a groan of frustration and lifts Iruka, bunching his kimono up his hips to wrap his legs around Kakashi’s waist. Kakashi walks them down the rest of the path to their spot by the stream, stopping a few times on the way to push Iruka against a tree and grind their middles together.

He is glad to see that Iruka had left his blanket from earlier in the day, and gently drops to his knees to lay him down, his thighs shaking from the effort and arousal. 

Soon, they are nothing but bodies seeking friction and release. A connection. The air around them seems heavy with an unnamed energy, cackling at his senses and making him heady with want. They are nothing but moans and sighs, warm breaths on skin, goosebumps lighting a trail down their arms. Lips open in a gasp. Hair pooling under Iruka’s body. Hands on their members, rubbing the wetness there. 

The stench of their arousal rises around them, only serving to push Kakashi more into their coupling, a guttural moan escaping when hands wrap around him. Pulling him. Touching him. Breaking him apart in tiny pieces bit by bit and leaving nothing but a wide, empty space to fill with nothing but Iruka. 

Iruka, who gasps. Iruka, who grips. Iruka, who bites. Iruka, who guides him inside, slicked with oil. Iruka, who tightens around him. Iruka, who whimpers. Iruka, who rolls him in. Iruka, who kisses his lips with a bruising passion, who sends Kakashi’s blood on fire.

Kakashi is shaking, coming apart. Everything around him is tainted with Iruka. He can’t see anything else. His face, his skin, his body, his eyes, his hair, his cock. Iruka’s hands come up to his face and tilts it so they can face each other, a thumb caressing the scar running over Kakashi’s eye.

Kakashi is powerless to him. Iruka is beautiful like this-- sweaty and flushed with sex, his eyes dark and heated with arousal, his kimono bunched around his arms and waist. Iruka lifts trembling fingers to the newly elongated and pointed canines that peek out from Kakashi’s lips, Kakashi unable to fully close his mouth with them out like this. 

The sight of them doesn’t scare Iruka like Kakashi had been worried, but fuels his arousal and sends him surging up into Kakashi with both his lips and hips, pushing until they roll over and Iruka straddles his waist, his hair cascading down over one shoulder along with his kimono.

He won’t ever forget this. His eye spins in his head in a red haze and records everything--every moment, every touch, every smell, all of it. Kakashi can’t keep his eyes off of Iruka over him, his face contorted in pleasure as he rocks against Kakashi, seeking release. Kakashi pulls him down tight against his chest, savoring the feeling of Iruka’s breath against his neck, and begins to rut into him, chasing their release with wanton abandon.

It’s tight. Warm. Wet. Heavy. Electrifying. Nothing like anything he’s ever felt before. Everything around him is nothing but Iruka, Iruka, Iruka, Iruka.

The release hits him unexpectedly-- his mind focused on nothing but the shouts of pleasure Iruka is giving him. It hits him so hard Kakashi growls and rolls Iruka flat on his back, rolling into him deeply, shaking as he empties himself inside him. Iruka grips his shoulders, his back, his hips with his legs as he, too, reaches his release, one hand pumping his own cock in tandem with Kakashi's thrusts, his head thrown back and his mouth open in a wordless exhale.

_ Gods _ . He feels  _ elevated, _ intoxicated with the rush of having Iruka like this. Of giving himself to Iruka like this. Kakashi doesn’t think he will ever be the same. 

They spend the rest of the evening there, tangled in each other, the sun setting behind the trees in splashes of purple, red, and orange, listening to the cicadas sing in the evening air, the bubbling brook their only companion.

Tomorrow, they will clean up camp and finish gathering their supplies. Tomorrow, they will begin their journey to the weaponsmith, and Kakashi will have to face the reality of Iruka returning to his home island, and the possibility he won’t want Kakashi alongside him, that he won’t want him to stay.

Tonight, however, Kakashi holds him close in the bedroll they share back inside the hut, the small fire of the heath burning beside them, and does his best to commit every detail of this wonderful creature to his memory, from Iruka’s smile, his scent, the feeling of running a comb through his hair, and tells himself that this is enough. It is enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter: Iruka and Kakashi travel to the mountains with a couple surprises waiting for them.


	3. Of curse breaking and other matters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They travel to the Iron Mountains.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again! More tagged warnings come to play here. TW for attempted sexual assault, brief mention.
> 
> Hope you enjoy~

They travel to the Iron Mountains.

Things are different. In a good way. In a _great_ way. 

Iruka is still quiet and somber for some of the days and tires easily. Kakashi is happy to carry him, but is always refused with a red-faced glare. Kakashi tries not to feel too hurt by it.

The small villages they pass treat them warily, so they time their arrivals in them to the night hours, arriving late and leaving at dawn to avoid the majority of onlookers.

Iruka must have really not seen much of the mainland, because he is constantly stopping to look at the flora and fauna, asking questions of their names and what not. Kakashi is happy to oblige, wanting to encourage more conversation between them. Luckily, they don’t need much--for the little Kakashi knows about the other man, he feels like he’s known him his whole life.

Their physical closeness only grows. Iruka lets Kakashi kiss him. Touch him. Keep him close by. Kakashi likes to take in his scent, something Iruka always reciprocates, nuzzling Kakashi’s neck with his nose. Iruka likes to use his tongue. Likes it when Kakashi bites down on his shoulder, back, leg, wherever. Likes it when they stay close, after, with Kakashi still inside him. Kakashi’s chest feels full of him, too. 

He savors every moment like it was the last.

Iruka also likes gifts, although he does try to hide it. Kakashi whittles him another comb, hair pin, and even goes as far as to buy him a blue ribbon when they pass through a market.

Iruka wears it every day, taking great care to fold it into his robes at night before he climbs into Kakashi’s bed. Kakashi had always thought that he wouldn’t like another person’s company in his sleep like this, but that was before Iruka. He’d always been afraid of leaving himself so vulnerable. It’s nice, now. The warmth from Iruka’s body is comforting. The solid weight of him pressed to his side is reassuring.

Iruka also has nightmares, sometimes. He never shouts, or screams. He comes awake with a startled gasp and a sudden tense of his body, lying frozen until Kakashi can pull him back to slumber. Kakashi doesn’t like seeing him distressed. He’d do anything to bring him some comfort. Whatever he has left he wants to give it all. He wants to grow things inside himself, treat his barren heart and reap what he sows to hand place it into Iruka’s palms if that was what it took to give him even a moment’s respite.

When they reach the mountain trail, they pause to dress into warmer wears before passing through the torii gate. Their path is clear and the weather is fair, if cold, and Kakashi can tell Iruka is nervous with each step they take.

“I just don’t want to get my hopes up,” Iruka tells him, huddling into his fur-lined hood. “What if it doesn’t work?”

“I’ll find another way,” Kakashi responds, reaching out to squeeze his hand. Iruka smiles up at him appreciatively.

“Okay,” Iruka kisses his cheek softly. “I believe you.”

When they pass the same torii gate for the fifth time, Kakashi starts to think something might be wrong. He has definitely seen that rock before. And that plant. He looks around and whistles for the dogs. 

Silence.

Kakashi pulls Iruka closer to him but his hands meet air. He whirls around and sees that Iruka and the pack are gone. “Iruka!” he shouts, his heart beating rapidly in his chest. He lays a hand on his sword and crouches low, stretching his senses out for-- a rustle!

Kakashi spins, his sword drawn, and freezes at the sight that stepped from the tree line. 

“My son,” Sakumo says to him, his voice echoing in the distance between them. He smiles at him, and Kakashi feels his insides freeze. 

“Father?” Kakashi whispers, dipping his sword low. But how? Sakumo moves closer to him, and with each step a bloodstain grows on his torso until he is standing right before Kakashi, the blood dripping onto the ground. Kakashi can smell it.

“You did this to me,” Sakumo hisses at him, his face ashen and his eyes sunken in his cheeks. Kakashi chokes out a grunt as a tanto is plunged into his stomach. He gasps when it slides out, falls to his knees, eyes wide and staring incredulously up at his father.

A kick to the side of the head sends him flying and landing on his back. He stares up at Obito as he leans over him, the cloud-covered sun behind his head. Half of his body is bloody, raw, and crushed. White specks of bone peek out, his left eye socket empty. Kakashi flinches at the blood that splatters on his face as Obito speaks. “You took this from me,” he sneers at him.

Something bites his ankles and drags him away, teeth tearing into his flesh. Kakashi shouts at the pain, scrambling to catch himself against something, anything to keep himself from being devoured. His body is singing with fear. He looks down and sees a rabid spirit leave him and go after Rin. “No!” Kakashi shouts, but he is too late. Rin spins around with a gasp, the spirit entering her body through her mouth. 

Rin collapses, clutching her throat. Kakashi runs over to her, wounded and bleeding and how is any of this real? How is this happening right now? Rin coughs and clutches at his arms. “Kill me,” she pleads, crying. “Don’t let it live! Kill me!” Kakashi watches in shock as blood blossoms from her chest and she falls backwards, her legs under at an odd angle. He looks down and sees his sword is covered in blood, dripping. 

Someone grips his shoulder to spin him around. Sakumo glares into his son's eyes. “You did this to me,” he shouts, sliding a blade into Kakashi’s gut. Obito. Rin. It loops, over and over and over again, until Kakashi is panting with exhaustion. It’s in the fifth loop that Kakashi finally dredges up the sense to open his Crow Eye and see that he is trapped in an illusion. 

“Release!” He shouts, stopping his chakra flow before sending a pulse through his body. When he opens his eyes, he is bound and gagged in a dark cave, the only light a flickering flame somewhere behind him. 

Kakashi keeps calm. He takes stock. He feels weak and his chakra is low. The illusion really drained it out of him. He lets his eye trail down at his feet and sees all of the dogs knocked out. He stretches his senses and smells fear. A lot of it. He also smells adrenaline, blood, and death. He feels Iruka somewhere behind him, alive. Some other signature he can’t identify is with him. 

He also hears voices.

“Thought you could get away from me, huh? How are you so stupid? Well, I’m not sure who’s more stupid--you, for thinking you’d be free, or _him_ , thinking he could help you. What? Did you spread your legs and get caught in your own honey?”

A growl and a shout, before something loud smacks and thuds onto the floor. “Oh, Iruka, Iruka. When will you learn? You were supposed to be _mine.”_

“No! Let me--let me _go,_ Mizuki! Stop!”

Sounds of a struggle increases. Fuck. Kakashi takes a deep breath in. He tests the bounds, but they are immune to his chakra. His weapons lay in a pile well on the other side of the cave next to two dead bodies. God, he can barely move he feels so drained. He feels sick with it. Dizzy. He hears Iruka cry out behind him and jolts back into awareness, his adrenaline spiking enough to give him another moment of clarity.

“Stop fucking moving!” another grunt along with the rattle of chains. 

“No! Get off!”

“That’s the _plan_ , you useless dragon! Maybe you need something to remind you of who’s in charge right now.”

Steps coming closer before something pulls him up by his chains bounding his arms to his back. Kakashi grunts at the pain as he’s dragged along the cave floor. He takes in all of the weapons and ingots he passes and thinks they reached the weaponsmith after all.

He’s thrown by the fire where Iruka is tied to a spike in the ground, his wrists chained to it. He still wears the golden ropes. Kakashi feels an immediate sense of relief at seeing him alive before a swell of rage comes over him. Iruka has a swollen eye and is bleeding through his nose, reminiscent of the first time he saw him at that slave auction. He is covered in dirt and sweat, his ankle swollen and bruised, his clothing torn. His wrists bleed at the strain against the metal. He is sobbing.

The stranger--Mizuki-- brings Kakashi up to his knees and splashes a bucket of water over his head. Kakashi flinches at the shocking pain from it--the water had been hot and laced with wolfsbane, poison to any with dog demon blood. Shit. Kakashi sees everything blur before him, and he sags forward into the fire before being kicked away from it.

“God, how pathetic. All for this mutt, Iruka? This is what you’ve replaced me with? Tch, you _owe_ me your life!” he roars, stalking to Iruka and backhanding him across the face.

Kakashi flinches, struggling to sit back up. The poison is strong. His chakra is still severely low from the illusion. The faces of Rin, Obito, and his father distort his vision, as if they were right there with him. He grunts when something pierces his shoulder and slides back out, the warmth spreading slowly. 

“No! Stop...Mizuki, _please._ Leave him alone,” Iruka begs.

“Oh, I like how you beg. But you know it won’t work. You begged for that fox brat and look where it got you.” Mizuki laughs as he stabs Kakashi again, this time in the other shoulder. The pain is fierce. Kakashi tries to block it out, focusing on his energies--his chakra, his demon aura, _anything--_

There’s a bright flare of a yellow light. It surrounds Iruka in a loud, charged crackle of energy. It whips his hair up into the air and Kakashi feels his own hair lift rush around him with the sudden gusts of wind inside the cave. Iruka’s lips pull back in a deadly snarl as he lunges for Mizuki’s throat. He manages to catch a bite on his arm before the golden cord activates, sending a black arch up and around Iruka, causing him to spasm and collapse into himself with a painful sound, his dragon energy immediately dissipating with the winds.

“You fucking bitch! That fucking hurt!” Mizuki yells, hitting the back of Iruka’s head with the hilt of his sword. He pushes Iruka down on his stomach and uses his sword to cut through the layers of cloth and robes before he shoves it to the side and unties his own sash. Kakashi watches as Iruka’s eyes flutter and struggle to keep open, his fingers scraping for purchase on the ground underneath him.

Kakashi can barely focus. He is seeing double of everything. He’s hot, flushed. He’s panicking. Iruka. Iruka is in danger. Get up! Get up! You need to help Iruka! What the hell are you doing! Break the bonds! Go! Kill him! Kill him! _Kill him!_

A loud growl rips through Kakashi’s throat as the world suddenly tints red with extreme clarity. He is on his feet and lunging himself into Mizuki, the force of his body weight sending them both into the ground. Kakashi has his teeth on the man’s jugular in seconds, clamping down and releshing in the blood that fills his mouth. He gives it another bite down for security, tearing off of him in a wet gasp. Kakashi looks down and watches with deep satisfaction as the man’s eyes dull in death.

Kakashi collapses on top of the body, panting. He spits out the blood. He groans as he rolls off and pushes his body with his feet to drag himself over to Iruka. The blood on his face leaves bloody streaks on the cotton of his torn kimono. There is a deep sink in his stomach when Iruka doesn’t move. “Iruka,” Kakashi croaks out. “Iruka, he’s dead. Iruka.”

Iruka moans, his shoulders tensing. He rolls his head side to side, his forehead pressed into the ground, until he finally looks over at Kakashi. “‘Kashi,” he whimpers, his lips quivering. “God, oh gods. I thought you were--that he was--”

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” Kakashi reassures him, nuzzling his head into Iruka’s shoulder. “We gotta get out of here.” 

“Aw, aren’t you two so cute,” a fourth unknown voice chimes in from above.

Iruka and Kakashi both jump, Kakashi forcing himself on top of Iruka with his teeth bared. It is one of the dead bodies Kakashi saw from the entrance. Alive now, the man has brown hair under a grey cloth and a senbon between his teeth. There is blood all over his front, but the wound on his neck is no more.

“Relax, man, relax! The name’s Genma. That toad sage told me you were coming. Although, I admit, I didn’t expect _this_ much of a bloodbath. Just what curse were you trying to break?”

Kakashi relaxes minutely. “You’re the weaponsmith?” The poison is beginning to wear off, but not fast enough for his liking, leaving him struggling to clear his vision under his throbbing headache. His shoulders also burn in great pain. Iruka shifts behind his back, his body still racking with spasms.

Genma grins. “The one and only!”

“Hey, forgot about me already?” the other dead body pops up behind Genma, one arm around his shoulders. This man had burn scars on the side of his face, and wore heavy blacksmith gloves. “Damn. You guys look like you could use some help. Will you tear _my_ throat out if I get that close?”

The pack, thankfully, also choses that moment to wake up. With them taking guard, Kakashi is comfortable enough (barely) to let the men close enough to undo his binds. When he’s finally free, he pushes them away from him and Iruka with a growl and snap of his jaws. They back up, hands raised. Kakashi breaks Iruka’s chains and holds him close, relief flooding through his senses to have him in his arms. He takes off his own pelt to cover him with.

“The rope. Can you break it?”

Genma reaches into his pocket and takes out different colored pieces of what looks like to be shards of glass. He brings them to his eyes one at a time and peers through each piece, pointing to the golden cords. He switches from blue, to pink, to yellow, before letting out an “ah-ha!” through the green colored shard. “Raidou, get me the thing.”

Raidou lets out a sigh. “Which thing?”

“The green one! Duh!”

Raidou leaves deeper into the cave before returning with a pair of jade sewing shears, which he passes to Genma. “Okay, first off, _you,”_ he points to Iruka, “have to finish killing _him._ The curse calls for blood, but to break it completely you need to make sure he’s dead. _”_ He points to the body of Mizuki, who, in fact, is not all the way dead. Mizuki makes very small gurgling noises behind them, Kakashi notes with a furious disappointment. 

“Once you do, that will release the energy drain. Then I can cut the cord. If I do it earlier you’ll be stuck being drained until...well, you don’t have any left.” He grimaces.

Iruka lets out a shaky breath before nodding. He picks up the discarded sword still stained with Kakashi’s blood and kneels behind Mizuki’s head. Kakashi watches as Mizuki’s eyes train on Iruka, his mouth trying to form words and failing. Iruka takes a deep breath, his nostrils flaring, before he brings the blade down straight through Mizuki’s heart, twisting it for good measure. 

Iruka leans against the sword before releasing it, letting it stand in the chest. He shakily crawls back into Kakashi’s arms, faint spasms making his muscles twitch still. 

“Alright, you ready?” Genma asks, holding out the jade shears.

Iruka holds his wrists out, the gold cord swinging with the movement. Genma stretches his arms and cuts the cord clean with the jade shears.

For a moment, nothing happens. Iruka lowers his hands, shaking the rope off of his skin. He frees his wrists and reaches behind himself to free his ankles. They all stare at the pile of golden ropes on the floor, waiting for _something._

Then, it’s like a power vacuum opened in the room, taking out all the air and energy into one centerpiece, that center being Iruka. Kakashi chokes, unable to take breath, when he, along with Genma and Raido, are pushed down to the ground with the onslaught of a heavy, _dense_ energy unlike anything he has ever felt before, exploding around them in a flash of golden lights and flares of small fires appearing in the air.

Just as sudden as it appeared, it’s gone. Kakashi scrambles up, or tries to with the pain in his shoulders, to see Iruka bent over on the floor on his hands and knees, panting. The energy around him is charged, but not visible. When he looks up, his eyes meet Kakashi’s with a heavy heat, and Kakashi feels breathless once again, overcome with the godly sight of Iruka before him, his eyes glowing yellow, copper dragon scales shimmering on the edges of his eyes along his cheekbones before disappearing from view.

In a blink, Iruka is on him, his body pressed tightly in a warm embrace. He is laughing in Kakashi’s ear, pressing kisses all over his head and face. “I-Iruka? It worked?” Iruka appears to be fully healed--the blood still on his face but any bruising or open wounds have completely disappeared.

“Yes,” he laughs. “Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.” Iruka pulls back and digs his hands into Kakashi’s robes, revealing his two shoulder wounds before licking them both in one broad stroke of his tongue each. Kakashi feels a shiver and starts at the sensation, before a warmth takes over the sores. He looks down and watches as a small spark of yellow light seems to knit together muscle and skin.

He looks back up at Iruka, who looks so _alive_ in a way he didn’t before--his skin darker, his eyes brighter, his hair thick and smooth and not at all dry and straw-like as it had been, more wavy than listless, and Kakashi drinks in the changes hungirly.

“Do I get a kiss like that?” Genma leers, his eyebrows wiggling up and down. He backs away when Iruka, Kakashi, and all of the dogs send him a warning growl. “Alright, alright! Damn!”

Kakashi ignores the man, insteading pulling Iruka into his arms reverently, holding him close. He inhales his changed scent, ingraining it to memory, and hopes to all gods that listen that he can have him for just a little while longer.

\---

In the days after their trip to the weaponsmith, Iruka won’t stop _smelling_ him.

Instead of traveling straight back to his hut, Kakashi decides to take the long way around to give Iruka a bit of a tour of the countryside. 

The weather had been fair thus far, and Kakashi wasn’t on any time constraints. Iruka didn’t seem like he wanted to leave Kakashi’s side, either. Their pace is slower, more relaxed. They aren’t in any hurry. 

Iruka walks at his side with a bouncy energy about him. Sometimes, he reminds Kakashi of a fox more than a dragon in his behaviors. But he is glad of it. Iruka has started being more physical, lacing their fingers together as they walk, leaning his head on Kakashi’s shoulder as they rest for lunch. 

He’d even let Kakashi carry him on his back on a particularly hot afternoon as he took a nap. Kakashi had smiled all day.

But--the _smelling._

Iruka will sometimes just come up to sniff him. Other times, he plasters himself against Kakashi’s back to press his nose under his ear, searching for that sweet spot where his scent is strongest.

For his part, Kakashi fights back the same desires. 

Ever since they’d broken the cords, Iruka’s scent had changed somehow. It’s become intoxicating, calling out to Kakashi like a beacon, making his entire self itch with a primal need he does not have much of a frame of reference for. He’d never scented anything so addicting. So enticing. He has to fight back a demonic surge in himself when Iruka presses his nose to that soft skin under his ear, an event that has been occurring much more often and much more heatedly with every press of skin.

With the way Iruka sends him a smirk afterwards, Kakashi thinks he knows exactly how hard Kakashi is holding himself back. 

Iruka has also started showing little bits of his dragon-self, giving a small flash of dragon scales on his skin or breathing a shoot of fire to light their campfires, always with a nervous look in his eyes, or a side-glance in Kakashi’s direction. Always cautiously waiting for _something._ Kakashi doesn’t know what he’s waiting _for,_ but from the soft, blushing smiles he tries to hide behind the sleeves of his kimono, he thinks he must be doing something right.

How could he be anything but completely and hopelessly enamored by Iruka showing his vulnerabilities so open? How could he not be anything but humble and respectful towards such a beautiful, powerful creature, choosing to show his soft spots for Kakashi, and Kakashi alone?

A shift in Iruka’s scent pulls Kakashi out of his reverie.

Kakashi looks up from where he had been filling their canteens by the river. The dogs romp in play in the banks, splashing and slinging mud into the air. 

Iruka wades through the water, his kimono bunched up in one hand, exposing the skin of his legs from his thighs downward. Kakashi gets that ever-growing urge to scent him again. He swallows around the pit in his throat and forces himself to focus.

Iruka is holding something in his palm, a sad look on his face. Kakashi screws the canteen closed and wades through the water towards him. “Iruka?”

Iruka sniffs and wipes his face, hiding the tear that had fallen from view. Kakashi’s heart clenches in sympathy. He hates to see Iruka in any kind of pain. He reaches out a hand and slides it at the nape of the other man’s neck, squeezing softly.

He takes the offered stone and studies it in his hand. It seems to be a simple river stone, gold in hue, with a swirling pattern naturally formed on the sides. He thumbs it before handing it back to Iruka, who holds it up to his lips for a kiss. “I wasn’t completely truthful when I said I was the last of my clan. Of dragons, yes. But...” Iruka takes in a shaky breath before pressing the stone tightly against his chest. Kakashi waits patiently for him to finish.

“We shared the island with a fox clan. Small, just like us. One day, we were attacked by a murder of Crows. They’d killed everyone--burned up the island like it was nothing until I was the only one left. My parents--” Iruka’s voice chokes off. He sniffs loudly before continuing. “My parents fought and protected me. I was too young to fight, too slow in my scales or on my feet. Afterwards, I found the fox’s den. They’d left a kit behind---Naruto.” 

Iruka’s lips quiver and Kakashi slides his arms around him, swaying gently in the cool waters of the River. “I found him and took him in. Raised him as my own. He was my pup for years, until the poachers. Mizuki led them right to us. They killed him.” Iruka lets out a sob, hunching over into himself. “They killed him. I just miss him so much.”

Kakashi can do nothing but hold him as he expresses his grief. He thinks yet again, with an ever increasing furious disappointment at the mere mention of the man, that Mizuki’s death had been too soft for him. He deserved to suffer.

After a respectable amount of time, Kakashi gently asks about the stone. “Oh...his fur was this yellow hue, so beautiful. And the swirl was the symbol of his clan.”

That sparks a memory in Kakashi’s mind. “Was he Uzumaki?”

Iruka looked up at him in surprise, the tear tracks dried on his face. “You know them?”

“My sensei,” Kakashi trails off, stunned to be connected to Iruka in this way. “My first sensei, who taught me the sword--he was mated to an Uzumaki. He’s...well, I think he’s dead now.”

“Oh,” Iruka stares down at the stone in his hand before bending over and placing the stone gently back into the water.

They both watch it for a few moments before Kakashi has an idea. He sniffs the air and decides, yes, they are close enough. “Hey,” he nudges Iruka’s shoulder. “Do you want to see something?”

Iruka looks at the stone some more before turning to Kakashi again, curious. “Sure?”

“Let’s go,” Kakashi laces their fingers together and pulls Iruka to the other side of the river.

\---

They walk for an hour before they reach it. 

Kakashi can tell Iruka can feel the excitement rolling off of Kakashi, only getting more excited himself, teasing humorously with a small grin on his face.

Finally, Kakashi starts to hear the rushing water, and the trees clear to a vast, open river, rushing over the edge of a cliff in a magnificent waterfall. The forest is dense with trees and bushes and wildflowers around them, creating a thin veil of privacy. “We’ll have to climb down through the--Iruka! What are you doing?”

Iruka stands next to him completely naked, his robes held out for Kakashi to take. He slides out of his shoes and water walks onto the river, his dragon tattoos shimmering under the sunlight. Kakashi is struck by his beauty under the sun, rainbow spectres dancing around Iruka as the sunlight reflects off of the mist rising from the rushing waters, water beading along his dark skin in a tantalizing display.

He shouts when Iruka runs down river and just _dives_ over the edge of the waterfall. He drops the clothes and rushes into the water, uncaring of his own getting wet. The dogs bark around him. The waterfall is great and large---the height of it alone could kill an average human with ease.

He should have known. Iruka is, afterall, not an average human. Not even close.

Kakashi is just at the edge of the waterfall, his feet held in place by his chakra, when he draws back in surprise at the monstrous form that shoots up from the other side.

He watches in stunned awe as Iruka circles the sky in his dragon skin. 

_He’s beautiful._ He is serpentine in form, curling much like a snake through the air. Iruka’s scales are of copper and golden hues, his eyes a bright yellow with teeth as long as Kakashi’s arm. His maine billows around his head and jaw until it tapers down his spine into long, sharp spikes. His talons are just as dangerous looking on his paws, glinting in the sunlight, as his tail whips in the air behind him.

The wind roars with his shriek, and Iruka dives back down with great speed straight in his direction. Kakashi takes an involuntary step back, because Iruka was _big,_ but Iruka’s form shrinks down until he is nothing more than the size of a garden snake, about one meter in length. Iruka dives right into the river water, jumping in and out like a fish, so obviously very happy to have been taken here to Kakashi’s little spot.

Kakashi laughs, relieved. Iruka swims over to him, his little golden head poking out of the water, his paws paddling under him. “Do you like it?”

In answer, Iruka darts under the water and around Kakashi’s ankles in quick, happy movements. “Hold on.” Kakashi runs back to the tree line where the dogs waited. He quickly divests himself of his clothes, and, after a moment’s hesitation, his mask. He runs back out to the river, laughing when he catches sight of Iruka curled up on a rock sunbathing already. The sight of it answers Kakashi’s wondering on why it was that Iruka seemed to take so many naps.

“You want to race? See who gets down to the bottom first?”

Iruka perks his head up and slips into the water, increasing his size a bit until he’s easily twice the length of Kakashi’s body, but just as big around as his human form. “Alright, on one, two--” and Kakashi races off. 

He hears Iruka playfully growl behind him and laughs. 

Jumping off of this waterfall has been a favorite indulgence of Kakashi’s for years. The scenery, the scents, the thrill of falling through the air--there is nothing else like it. 

The wind whips past him as Kakashi dives off the edge. He can see the sparkling waters below him rising to full speed. He grins, ready for the cold slap of the water to hit his skin. 

Iruka slides beside him, the wind whipping his hair and ears back. He adjusts his size again until he resembles the thickness of an oversized horse and spins them until Kakashi is at his back. Kakashi automatically fists Iruka’s mane and wraps his legs around Iruka’s back, careful of the spines.

Just as they are about to hit the water, Iruka pulls _up_ into the air, his tail slapping the surface of the river, and flies high into the sky until Kakashi is tasting the clouds.

Kakashi holds on for dear life, invigorated. The view was breathtaking. He could see the forests and mountains surrounding them for miles, the sparks of color and greenery like a painting under the afternoon sky. Kakashi laughs loudly, adrenaline pumping through his veins. He pulls on Iruka’s hair and sends out a flare of his chakra, hoping his enthusiasm and joy is well understood.

Iruka releases a huff of air from his snout before he slowly loses his momentum and settles into a lazy circle, the clouds moving around them in cool puffs of misty air. 

“Wow. This is beautiful, Iruka. Thank you. Thank you so much.”

There’s a rumbling under Kakashi’s legs much like a purr, and he smiles.

\---

They spend the rest of the day like that.

They laugh and splash and swim in the river, alternating between playing under the rushing waterfall, or near the edge where the waters were calmer. Iruka shifts between his many dragon sizes and his human form, comfortable and confident in Kakashi’s presence. Kakashi feels honored and wholly smitten.

That night, they make camp by the base of the waterfall just beyond the muddy banks, far enough away to create a shelter in case of any rains under the thick canopy of the forest surrounding. The water crashing down is a comforting, peaceful sound, creating a semblance of peace, a small pocket in the world made just for them. Kakashi uses the sounds to ground him, because Iruka will not stop making _eyes_ at him, and Kakashi is finding it hard to keep a firm control over himself. 

Iruka’s scent has changed again. It makes everything in Kakashi squirm and stand on edge. Something deep inside him, something dark and heated and primal, keeps yelling at him to _claim,_ to _rut,_ to make _mine._

But he resists. He doesn’t want to scare Iruka away. Doesn’t want to hurt him. (He is also fearful of him _self,_ for he’s never felt such strong urges before, and doesn’t want to lose any clarity in the violence simmering under his skin.)

He should have known better.

After dinner, they clean up their camp and settle onto their attached bedrolls under the soft light of the moon, stars, and small campfire. Half of the dogs are settled around them, the other half on patrol, roaming the established perimeter.

Kakashi gently runs the wooden comb through Iruka’s hair, content and pleased and warm and full, almost deliriously happy to do this task for Iruka. He braids it into two long sections as requested before tying the ends off with pieces of ribbon. 

When he’s done, Iruka turns and looks at him with a gaze so heated Kakashi is helpless to it, hummingbirds buzzing in his gut at the sight of him. Iruka noses his way down Kakashi’s neck, inhaling deeply, before moving back to kiss his lips wetly.

Kakashi kisses him back, opening his mouth wide and sliding his tongue sensually into Iruka’s waiting mouth. Iruka moans, rolling his hips into Kakashi’s. Their passion grows, their skins burn. Kakashi’s arousal is almost instantaneous under Iruka’s roaming fingers and gaze, his scent most of all.

Iruka’s sleeping yukata, another gift he’d accepted from Kakashi, falls to rest on the crooks of his elbows. He straddles Kakashi’s lap, his arms wrapped around his shoulders to keep them both balanced.

A moan fills the night air, followed by a breathless gasp. Iruka bears down on Kakashi’s fingers, pulling the man’s silver hair back to lock their gazes. Kakashi increases the pace, only needing a small amount of oil, for Iruka is able to naturally produce his own. Iruka looks at him with his mouth popped open, his eyes a dark, golden amber. “Show me,” Iruka pants. He grabs Kakashi’s chin and holds his jaw, tilting his face so Kakashi looks straight into his eyes. “Show me your true form.”

Swallowing, Kakashi hesitates. “Iruka, I don’t--”

“You won’t hurt me. You won’t. Show me.” Iruka bears down and wraps a hand around Kakashi’s glistening member. “I want it, I want you. I want _all_ of you. _Show me.”_

Kakashi groans, utterly and completely overcome. He slowly releases the hold he has on his demon nature, the ache in his jaw increasing as his teeth elongate and give his canines their true size. He knows the whites of his eye also take on a blue tint along with the jagged stripe that climbs from his scalp just above his ear along the right side of his jaw, and staring at Iruka, he can see the dragon’s pupils dilate in pure pleasure as Kakashi runs retractable claws down the dragon’s back with his free hand.

Iruka’s entire body shudders.

It’s enough to push Kakashi over the edge. 

He growls, putting Iruka on his back and leaning over him, his mouth leaving a trail of wet kisses, tongue strokes, and love bites all across Iruka’s skin. Iruka squirms under him, tightening his legs around Kakashi’s waist.

“Yes,” he says breathlessly. Iruka looks up at him and Kakashi feels like he’s the only thing in the entire world that matters. Like he is something to be valued, cherished. Possessed. Claimed. “ _Yes,_ ‘kashi, ah!”

Kakashi enters him in one thick, long stroke. Iruka groans, his head thrown back. Kakashi’s nose is assaulted with that heavy, heady scent that had been radiating off of Iruka for _days,_ and he snaps his hips forward in response, his hands gripping Iruka’s thighs tightly.

Kakashi wants Iruka sobbing for it--wants him teary faced and flushed and wet at the lips and _begging_ for it. Enthralled, Kakashi pulls out and takes Iruka by the braids of his hair and pulls him forward until Kakashi is guiding his cock into his open mouth. Iruka only seems to grow increasingly more enthusiastic at the rough handling, and sucks Kakashi’s cock like he was made for it. 

But Kakashi doesn’t want that, no. He stops him with a palm to his forehead, pushing him off, his dick twitching at the wet pop of Iruka’s lips as he comes off. “I want to fuck your mouth. Can I?”

Iruka clenches his eyes shut in pleasure for a moment, his hands twisting between his thighs, before he adjusts his position and settles onto his haunches, his mouth open with his tongue out, waiting for Kakashi to put his cock on it. 

Trembling, Kakashi stands and holds Iruka’s head with both hands as Iruka brings his palms to Kakashi’s cheeks, holding him in place. Doing this to Iruka’s mouth is a religious experience on its own. Kakashi holds him still as he snaps his hips forward, his cock sliding in and out of those gorgeous lips, watching in deep satisfaction as cum and saliva begin to drip down Iruka’s chin carelessly.

Their sounds are deliciously sensual. Wet and gasping and choking and heated. Kakashi goes crazy for it. He pulls out after a deep thrust into Iruka’s throat, and just about cums right there on Iruka’s face, the man looks so gorgeous. This is how he wanted him while fucked him. Eyes dazed and heavy, dark skin flushed with arousal, lips swollen and red as little tears twist out his lids.

“On your hands and knees,” he commands him. Iruka shivers and complies. 

Kakashi keeps a firm grip on Iruka's hips before he slowly enters Iruka, wanting to see every detail of the head of his cock breaching Iruka like this. Iruka moans, keening at the penetration. “More,” he begs. “Gods, Kakashi, _more.”_

Kakashi slams his hip until he is fully inside Iruka, and Iruka lets out a choked breath.

His pace grows with every heated moan and cry out of Iruka’s mouth. His mind is a swirl of their scents rising in the air, their energies fluctuating between them. He feels as though a haze has overtaken him, and nothing exists in this world outside of this moment, where it was just he and Iruka, sharing their bodies, seeking that crest of pleasure until their bodies _burn_ with it.

He can feel the orgasm building. His stomach begging to twist and pull at his balls, his cock aching for its release. There is also a new sensation, one Kakashi hadn’t ever experienced before, right at the base of his cock. Through his delirium, he doesn’t take much notice of it, only knowing it will make everything _better._ He’s just _so close._

“Oh,” Iruka gasps out. His arms shake from holding himself up. “ _Oh._ You have a knot,” his breathy voice is full of disbelief and wonder. “You have a knot.”

Kakashi feels it now, the naming of it bringing up faint recollections of demon mating behaviors, something he faintly had knowledge of but never applied to himself, that pressure building but different from an oncoming orgasm now that he has identified it. He pauses his rhythm for a moment, Iruka crying out at the pause, to see that, yes, his cock is inflating. He’d only known he was capable of this clinically, knew through journal entries and scrolls that it meant something important, but he could only think of one thing: “Iruka,” his voice strains. “Do you want me to stop?”

“ _No,”_ Iruka presses himself back into Kakashi, falling forward on his forearms and looks over his shoulder. “Please. I want it. _Don’t stop_.”

Kakashi doesn’t wait a moment longer until he’s pushing inside him again, relentlessly pumping himself, trying to get that pressure in his cock to release. Gods, his whole body is on _fire._ His nerves burn at their touch, where their bodies press together. His eyes roam every detail of Iruka’s body. He leans forward over Iruka, plastering himself against the man’s back as he ruts into him.

Iruka lets out an endless staccato of moans and whimpers. Finally, _finally,_ Kakashi can feel himself getting ready to cum, and he brings an arm around Iruka’s chest to hold him up to his own, and rolls his hip quickly and so _deeply_ that Iruka’s knees give out, his weight supported only by Kakashi’s own muscles.

Iruka clenches down around him with a wordless gasp, his mouth wide open, sharp teeth glinting in the moonlight, and the feeling of it is enough to have Kakashi cumming in him with a loud, reverberating grunt straight from his chest. 

“A-ah,” Iruka quivers with aftershocks from his orgasm. Kakashi’s cock is still inside him, spurting hotly into him. Iruka milks it out of him with every twitch of muscle as Kakashi guides them back down.

Kakashi’s eyes are wide, the pupils blown. Saliva drips from his teeth from where he is frozen above Iruka’s neck, every instinct yelling at him to _bite down._ Iruka’s head drops onto his forearms before he moves his hips up, freezing when Kakashi lets out a warning growl. 

He slowly turns to look over his shoulder to Kakashi, who feels like his entire world has been turned upside down and painted white. He’d never felt such pleasure, such an animalistic drive. He usually tries so hard to stay composed, calm, unthreatening. 

Iruka knows just how to pull the secrets out of him.

“Bite me, Kakashi. Fuck me with your knot and _bite_ me.”

Kakashi wastes no time.

This time, with his knot still tight inside Iruka, Kakashi fucks him like his instincts are telling him to--hard and fast and brutal and rampant with pleasure. Kakashi licks the spot on Iruka’s shoulder he’d been eyeing in preparation. When he feels his second release coming, he warns Iruka with a grunt before biting down, his teeth breaking the skin easily.

Iruka shouts.

Kakashi pants against his skin, his teeth sunken into that glorious, dark skin. Kakashi had been so consumed by his pleasure he hadn’t even taken the time to admire Iruka’s clan tattoos, his mind too dizzy with _want_ to properly take in how the dark ink contrasts beautifully with his skin.

After some time, Kakashi’s cock begins to deflate. Iruka whimpers when he pulls out, feeling bereft, but Kakashi keeps him close. He laps at the skin he’d broken with his teeth, apologetic at the smarting wound. There is little blood, but it will be well and truly bruised for days, no doubt.

Kakashi gently maneuvers them until they lay more comfortably on the bedrolls, pulling a blanket over them. Iruka settles onto his chest, his nose pressed into his skin. “Next time,” Iruka mumbles sleepily. “I want to bite you like that.”

In the morning, Kakashi will unpack the events of the evening. He will come to terms with the fact that instincts and biology have chosen Iruka as his lifemate, told by the presence of his knot and Kakashi’s oversensitivity to Iruka’s scent, and he will softly hope that Iruka’s has chosen the same for him.

For now, Kakashi smiles as he drifts off to sleep.

\---

Kakashi wakes up to a soft growling rising through the air.

His arms are empty. The fire is out. Kakashi reaches for his sword but is stopped by Iruka’s scales.

Iruka has taken to his dragon scales and is quite large in size. The length of his body encircles their camp twice, hiding Kakashi from view from whatever threat Iruka has perceived. The dogs are quite, calmly watching the scene unfold.

Suddenly, the sound of wood splitting and cracking pulls Kakashi out of his stupor and he senses the familiar chakra of Tenzou. “Iruka! Stop, he’s a friend.”

The growls pause. Iruka lets out a hot huff of air through his nose before he slowly slinks back besides Kakashi. He does not leave his dragon form, but has reduced himself inside to that of a large constrictor.

“Senpai?” Tenzou’s voice rings out.

“Tenzou, it’s alright. Come on.”

The ground around them shifts and the wind sends a swirl of leaves fluttering into the air. Tenzou materializes out of a tree with a worried look, which he sends towards Iruka’s figure, who growls in response. “Uh,” he stammers. “Is that a dragon?”

Iruka snaps his teeth and sends out a small twirl of fire in the air. Tenzou looks even more worried. Kakashi laughs.

“It’s fine, come on. What brings you?”

“You asked me if I ever got a sniff out of Akatsuki.”

Kakashi’s good mood immediately vanishes. His body stiffens and he pulls his chakra tightly against him. Iruka senses the change in him and shrinks until he is the size of a coral snake, and flies through the air gently until he is wrapped around Kakashi’s neck like a golden necklace. 

Akatsuki was a group of traffickers that Kakashi had been working on dismantling for years. They specialized in “exotic creatures” and youkai. The higher the bidder, the more dangerous the creature. It was where Iruka had been headed to if Kakashi hadn’t intervened.

“Tell me everything.”

“I was in Grass delivering a message when one of the taverns exploded. They’re saying it was a gas leak, but rumors say otherwise. I looked around, did some digging. There’d been a meet-up that night, at the inn. Big money was involved--it was supposed to be a private party. Rumor has it they’d been trying to find a bidder for a while, but the deals keep falling through because it’s so hard to control.”

“‘It’?” 

“A kitsune, a young one. Three tails.”

The air around them suddenly becomes charged with an oppressive heat. Kakashi chokes on the pressure around his neck and raises a hand automatically. “Iruka,” he gasps. 

The pressure eases and the heat subsides. Iruka licks the soft cartilage of Kakashi’s ear apologetically. “It’s okay,” he tells him. They had just talked about Naruto earlier that day for the first time. It only makes sense for Iruka to react so emotionally to the news. He turns his attention back to Tenzou. “Do you know where they will be next?”

Tenzou shakes his head negatively. “Only that they can’t find anyone to commit. The kitsune is too volatile--they’re saying he came from the Islands.”

Iruka stills on his neck. Kakashi starts to get a sick feeling in his stomach. “Tenzou,” he says. “What else do you know about this kitsune? Appearance? How long have they had him?”

“Ah, not much,” Tenzou rubs at his head. “They don’t have any other kitsunes, so either the kit was orphaned or taken from its mother. Very powerful already--the explosion was his foxfire alone. I’m surprised it didn’t take down the whole village. Oh! They said the kit spoke only in an obscure Water Tribe dialect. They couldn’t understand him.”

Iruka trembled violently at his neck. Kakashi swallows, feeling the barometric change in the air. “Thanks, Tenzou. You’ve been a lot of help. Come back with anything new on the kitsune.”

“No problem. Goodbye, Dragon-san!” Tenzo bows nervously at them before sinking back into the tree he’d come out of.

“Iruka, love, come here. Are you okay?” Iruka shoots out of Kakashi’s robes and materializes in human form, kneeling in front of him, uncaring of his nudity.

 _“No_ I am _not_ okay! What if that’s Naruto? He fits the description! I only ever spoke to him in my tribe’s tongue!” Tears have gathered in Iruka’s eyes. He looks frantic, worried, and full of grief. “I thought he _died._ I watched them smear his blood on the sand of my island. I _buried_ his _teeth_ in the sand of my island.”

Kakashi’s heart breaks. He runs his hands up and down Iruka’s arms, pulling him in close. He pulls his haori over him from where it had been strewn across the bedrolls. He presses Iruka’s face into the junction of his neck, where he knows his scent is strongest. “I’ll go searching for answers. It might not be him. But if it is--if it is, Iruka, I promise to do everything I can to get him back to you.”

Iruka tightens his arms around Kakashi in response, and despite Kakashi’s best efforts to calm him, they don’t get any more sleep that night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter: Some important conversations are had.


	4. The joining, part II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kakashi and Iruka head towards the right direction, literally and figuratively.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my goodness! You guys are amazing! Your comments and kudos give me LIFE. Thank you so much for taking the time to read my little story <3 hope you enjoy this next chapter! I gotta say, all this smut is fun but also difficult to write! But practice only makes better, right? :)

The full moon only days away, Kakashi adjusts their path to circuit back to Tea Country to meet with Jiraiya. 

They have to set a faster pace than before. Iruka spends most of the journey wrapped around Kakashi's neck, his body warm and comforting against his skin. After a run in with some low level youkai on the road, he finds that it's an easily defensible position, too.

With each mile, an unease settles over Iruka. Kakashi knows he is worried about the possibility that the kitsune is his adopted pup, Naruto. It's an odd feeling, hoping the kit has been kidnapped rather than killed. Sometimes death can be kinder than the slave trades. Kakashi hopes this won’t be that case.

When they finally reach Tea’s main village, Kakashi rents them a room in the inn he'd stayed in before and tries to leave Iruka for his meeting with Jiraiya.

"Absolutely _ not.  _ We are stronger together. I'll just hide in your pocket, if you're so worried." Iruka has his arms crossed, his chin set in a determined jut. Kakashi also sees a hint of fear flash in his eyes before it’s quickly covered by a glare.

"I am," Kakashi tells him, running a hand through Iruka’s loosely tied hair. He doesn't think he'll ever get tired of curling his fingers in the dark strands, and knows Iruka gains some comfort in the gesture. Even now, mad as he may be, he still leans into the touch. "These are part of the same traders that found you. I don't want to risk your life needlessly. This establishment isn't actually of the friendly variety."

Iruka looks him over for a moment before deflating, his shoulders slumping down in defeat. He rubs his face with his hands and up his forehead before tugging his hair around to stroke it in a nervous gesture. Kakashi reaches out a soft hand and cups his chin. He tries to make his expression as soft as possible, all unguarded affection and vulnerability to show Iruka he could trust him, confide in him, let him protect them.

Iruka leans forward and presses a kiss to his lips. It starts out chaste, but quickly deepens, something that has been happening more often since their coupling at the waterfall just three days ago. Kakashi finds that his body has been on edge since, like he's just  _ waiting _ for Iruka to come to him, get closer to him, open up for him, a low-grade fever laying dormant under his skin that comes alive only at his touch.

Looking out the window to the sun as Iruka's mouth travels down his neck with his teeth, Kakashi notes they have hours yet until Jiraiya would be expecting him.

He hefts Iruka up by his thighs, legs automatically coming to wrap tightly around Kakashi's waist, his kimono already loosely wrapped and falling around down his shoulders. He groans in approval and begins walking them to the small bed. That growing change in Iruka's scent seems to blossom and saturate the air, leaving Kakashi's head spinning and cock hardening rapidly almost reflexively. 

Iruka takes a deep inhale at his neck, just under his ear, and exhales it shakily. Kakashi savors the sound, his teeth aching in his jaw.

If he shows up to the bar later with a new bruise or two, Kakashi doesn't care. Jiraiya will tease him regardless.

\----

He's late.

Kakashi takes a sip of his whiskey and slides a mochi berry into his robes, smiling under his mask as he feels the tiny teeth and claws grab it from his fingers. Kakashi isn’t much for sweets himself, but Iruka can’t seem to get enough of them. He is more than happy to oblige.

While waiting on the Toad Sage to arrive, Kakashi surreptitiously observes his surroundings and its patrons over the lip of his book. The restaurant is as busy as usual, mostly single patrons sat away from each other with lots of empty spaces between. It’s quiet, and there is geisha playing the hoto on the low platform of the stage.

He turns a page just as he feels a small bite at his left pectoral. He reaches for another mochi berry obediently. 

Finally, after an hour of waiting, Jiraiya shows up. 

He’s his usual boisterous self, leering at the hostess and making exaggerated eyebrows at any woman who passes him. Kakashi resists the urge to roll his eyes and sighs softly instead. The stool scratches loudly on the floor as Jiraiya takes his seat next to Kakashi at the bar. He fflags down the bartender with two fingers and grins at Kakashi, sniffing at the air exaggeratingly.

“OH, ho-ho! Looks like I  _ was _ right, after all! Damn, Kakashi--never thought you had it in you. With a  _ dragon, _ no less. Your scent is all over the place.”

Kakashi lowers his mask and tips back his drink with just one hand. His other is laying in his robes with Iruka curled warmly around his wrist and fingers. He hasn’t moved for some time, and Kakashi thinks he’s fallen asleep, probably due to the sugar crash. 

His scent? Kakashi sniffs himself a little, tucking his head into his armpit. He doesn’t smell anything but Iruka’s cardamom and honey. “What do you mean.”

“You smell like a wolf in rut, kid. I know your father...well, the Hatake’s would only go into rut when their mate’s in heat. You better be careful out there, smelling like that. Too easy to track. You should stick to rivers on your way to Grass.”

Kakashi would be lying if he said his entire body didn’t just flush with cold and his stomach didn’t sour intensely at Jiraiya’s words. Any mention of his late father always provoked a tight pit in his chest, but the words following---well. He’d never really thought about it before that night at the waterfall. Things of old mating rites and ruts were a thing of generations past--tied to the energetic blood passed down generation to generation since the Great Inu. 

The stories had been fantastical and out of reach, and for a young five-year old, he hadn’t understood, much too confused, and never gave it a second thought. Around that time is when he’d learned of the Dragons, regardless, and his attention had been captured elsewhere.

Now, though.

Now Kakashi has to forcefully place his cup on the bar counter lest it shatter in his hands and disturb Iruka, who still sleeps curled around his hand and wrist, warm against his breast where he holds his hand inside his robe. He raises an eyebrow to the Toad Sage. “Grass, you say?”

Jiraiya considers him for a beat before shrugging and tossing back his sake cup. “There’s an auction in two nights' time. Heard they had an  _ especially _ troublesome creature on hand...sounded like something you might be interested in.” Jiraiya empties his bottle and waves over at one of the geisha, who bow and leave, presumably to get a room ready for him. Jiraiya stands and claps him on the back. “These aren’t going to be just some regular Sound samurai, kid. Don’t let your guard down over there. Ladies! What a wonderful evening...”

Jiraiya’s voice fades away as he disappears under the curtains to the back of the establishment. Iruka lets out a small huff of air against the hair on Kakashi’s arm.

As he calmly finishes his drink to avoid suspicion, Kakashi’s mind whirls with a plan. To reach Grass in two nights is a bit of a stretch of his capabilities. Of course, travel is made easier with Iruka in this form, but his mind flashes with a memory from the waterfall, and an idea hatches in his head.

\----

Traveling the skies with Iruka is an experience Kakashi doesn’t think he will ever forget or get tired of, much like everything else about the dragon that has capitaved his heart so strongly.

Kakashi had expected Iruka to be much more weary at the suggestion, but Iruka instead had been ecstatic and even overeager at the prospect, maybe even a few degrees aggressive. 

The place above the clouds is colder than what Kakashi expected, but Iruka’s heat under him keeps him warm and his fingers from freezing in their hold of Iruka’s mane. The dogs travel next to them on a tangible cloud conjured by Iruka’s breath and magic, piled on one another for warmth. 

Iruka’s scales are beautiful in the sunlight--radiating warm hues and opalescent swirls of color much like the inside of a reddish abalone shell. His long, slender body could easily wrap around a traditional home twice at this size. Copper, ambers, and golds all swirl underneath Kakashi’s eye, and for a moment, he closes it to relish the wind on his face and through his hair.

At nightfall, they find a cleared patch of forest by a river, covered by a dense tree canopy to enshroud their landing. The dogs yip and bark excitedly as they jump off their cloud, which disperses into the air like wisps of smoke. Iruka slowly shrinks until Kakashi can hop off safely. 

Between one breath and the next, Iruka is human again--well, almost human. His scales have not quite left his naked body--Kakashi can see some trail up his spine and along the backs of his hands, which are still clawed. It’s a state he’d not seen him wear before, and his eye drinks it in hungirly, suddenly and intensely hit with that intoxicating scent Iruka had been carrying the last few days--cardamom and honey with a touch of smoke. The heady scent of it compels Kakashi to move forward towards Iruka.

Iruka kneels right in the river, the water reaching just below his hips, and sighs. Kakashi can tell that the flying had been taxing for him, now seeing him back in his human state. As a dragon, he’d made it look like it took no physical exertion on him. Now, Iruka looks like he’d been running for a while, a light sheen of sweat lining his skin, his cheeks flushed, his breaths quick.

Iruka raises his head from where he’d been dunking his hair in the cool, softly flowing river, and Kakashi is immediately struck at the vision he makes--all dark panes of skin and lithe muscle, his body much thicker and healthier than when he had first met him, the reflection of the water rippling across his scales in soft flashes of fading sunlight.

His eyes trail up Iruka’s backside until he finally reaches his eyes, which are locked on to him in a half-lidded gaze, the iris of his eyes glowing yellow across the distance between them.

They stare at each other, caught by some invisible thread that freezes them in place. Kakashi realizes then that he’s breathing heavily through his mouth and snaps his jaw shut, his teeth clacking in his jaw. Iruka’s eyes catch the movement. Kakashi inhales through his nose and the scent that floods his system is so potent, so  _ appetizing,  _ that it has him feeling drunk, the world spinning around him in a swirling haze.

Iruka’s eyes dilate, and the water around him slowly begins to ripple and steam. Strands of hair not still in his braid float up around his head, his energies manifesting around him in a veiled cloud.

“Kakashi,” Iruka says his name in between his pants of breath, drawing out the last syllable as if it pained him. Kakashi feels his own blood respond to the display--bubbling under his skin with his rapid heart beat, pounding in his chest, in his head, in his groin. He feels the pull of his own chakra along with the traces of youkai energy try to manifest out of his control. He watches as Iruka clenches his eyes shut and forces himself to turn away, the muscles at his neck tense underneath his skin. 

His eyes trace his throat as Iruka swallows deeply. “How much...do you know about bonds?”

Kakashi has to force his eye to stay on Iruka’s turned head, roaming over the auburn waves. His mind scrambles for purchase, trying to make sense of what Iruka is asking. “Bonds?”

“ _ Yes, _ ” Kakashi closes his eye and drops his head back, his face to the darkening sky. The way Iruka voiced that was the same way he begged for Kakashi in the throes of pleasure. He can feel his hard member tent his hakama, but cannot find an ounce of shame for it. He looks at Iruka again and sees him curled into himself as if in pain. Kakashi wants to comfort him, hold him, fuck him, kiss him--- “Your clan. Did they...do you know why...what’s happening?”

Kakashi takes a deep breath. His hands are fisted at his sides, his sharpened nails--not quite claws--are threatening to cut into his skin. He focuses on the words, the questions Iruka is trying to ask him. He exhales. “Mating cycles. Soulmates. And you...you’re--”

“Your mate,” Iruka sounds breathless, the words coming out in a whisper. The wind picks up around them, sending a chill across Kakashi’s skin. “If we were to bond...it would be a True Bond. Do you understand? Your ancestor, Wakumi and--”

“Fire dragon Zuko,” Kakashi finishes, a little stunned. “Those were just stories.” His voice falls silent as Iruka turns his head back around, his eyes still bright and piercing. Hungry. 

“Does this feel like a story, to you?”

It doesn’t--it feel so  _ real _ and present and  _ here _ that the pull is undeniable. Everything inside him, everything that  _ is _ him, calls out to Iruka. Cries out to join their bodies, their chakra, their entire beings. Kakashi may not have a large frame of reference for these feelings, but he cannot deny his experience of them. “No.”

Iruka suddenly looks scared before he visibly steals himself and turns the rest of his body to Kakashi, his legs still in the water. The sky has grown darker now, and the only light is of the last rays of sun as it sinks into the horizon. “I’d dreamed about this--finding my mate, feeling my first heat. I’d given up that dream a long time ago with the extinction of my clan. I spent years telling myself the same thing--it’s just a story. It will never happen. Mizuki knew this and used it against me. I thought then that at all humans truly were the same--nothing but greedy liars with nothing but destruction in their hearts.” Iruka’s vision goes away for a moment as he’s pulled into the past, his eyebrows burrowing as his gazes turns to the forest behind Kakashi. Iruka takes a slow breath before continuing.

“But nothing,  _ nothing _ , could have prepared me for you.” Iruka flits his gaze back to Kakashi, who finds that his hands are trembling in his sleeves. 

He is at a loss for words. “Iruka,” he whispers.

“Do you understand? I will never find another. Not after you. My spirit calls out for it--my blood, my scales. I want nothing more than to spend the rest of my life with you. Do you? Do you feel the same? Do you want---”

Iruka flashes back with a gasp as Kakashi appears in the space before him with a small splash. Kakashi grips his arms to keep him from falling backwards. “ _ Yes.”  _

Kakashi grips his fingers on the muscle of Iruka’s biceps as he arches up into him. They both sniff at the air around their necks before Iruka nips at the skin there and Kakashi pulls him up for a bruising kiss.

The energy around them surges up in a cloud of charged heat, sparks of electricity arcing in the air around them. Kakashi’s thoughts tint yellow and blue and his thoughts turn hazy, driven by a primal need in him that becomes stronger with each pull at his chakra, each moan heard from Iruka’s lips, each whiff of that intoxicating scent. 

Vaguely, he is aware of how dangerous this could be for them. Youkai may be drawn to their energy build up, as well as any sensor-types that come into their radius. Kakashi can hardly bother to care too deeply about it at this moment. Their energies seem to be fusing in a way he’d never experienced or witnessed. He feels something pull at his gut, his  _ mind-- _ flashes of  _ desire  _ and  _ want _ and  _ need  _ and something that might be  _ love _ pulsating through his body, sending his own sensations on fire, creating a feed-back loop between him and Iruka.

Iruka holds him tight against his body, arms and legs wrapped around Kakashi like a vice. As their bodies come together with a brutal intensity that sends Kakashi’s muscles shaking under his restraint, their chakras begin to merge in a way that only stories tell about--an integration of body, mind, and souls.

The heat of Iruka’s magic curls through him like wisps of steam rising in the air. When he looks down to him, he sees that Iruka’s entire eyes seem to glow with his magic, nothing but a burning gold visible in their depths. 

The energy around them crests with their pleasure--a pleasure so great Kakashi is completely lost to it, a slave to it, can do nothing but seek it faster, harder, wanting  _ more more more. _

His jaw clenches painfully as his canines poke his lips. He feels Iruka curl into him and claw at his back. There is a sharp, biting pain at the junction of his shoulder that sends him over the edge with a shout, his orgasm spilling out of him in a relentless force, and distantly he feels his knot pull tightly as Iruka bears down around him.

The world around him encases itself in bright yellow and cackling blue.

He is not himself, not anymore. He can feel Iruka  _ everywhere.  _ It’s as if his senses have been overloaded and set to be attuned with everything  _ Iruka.  _ It’s beautiful. It’s painful. It’s shockingly arousing as he can now feel his orgasm reverberate in tandem with Iruka’s own release, the sensations running back and forth between them like reflections of two mirrors, looping seemingly forever in an endless rise of pleasure.

It’s moments, it’s days, it’s years, before Kakashi comes back to himself, a heavy scent of burning grass in his nose.

He’s panting, as is Iruka. There is a burning sensation at his shoulder and he instinctively knows it to be Iruka’s bite mark on his skin.

Iruka is panting underneath him, his eyes unfocused on the skies above. At some point they’d moved out of the river and onto the grassy banks. There is a circle of burning grass around them, little embers flying up into the air, carried by the slight breeze of the night.

He looks down at Iruka and meets his amber eyes. He feels renewed--a man born again, for the second time. He wonders if this is like the rest of their lives will be like--changing and being born again, Iruka pulling the changes out of him. 

Before he can formulate thought, Iruka meets his eyes with a smile. Kakashi swallows around his dry throat, shivering as his cock is still hard and aching inside Iruka. “Did we--?”

“Yes,” Iruka whispers. He brings his hands from where they’d been resting on Kakashi’s back to his face. “We’re bonded, now.”

Kakashi slowly smiles.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter: An auction doesn't go quite as planned.


	5. A true bond

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kakashi and Iruka make a rescue or two.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again~
> 
> thank you for everyone who left me comments and kudos <3 mean so much to meee. This chapter took me so long...action scenes and villains are hard, yo! 
> 
> Anyways, welcome to THE chapter--where a detail of this story is literally the only reason I started writing it. I hope you enjoy~

Kakashi peers through the tree line to the nondescript tavern at the edge of the village.

He spots at least ten swordsmen and even more that appear to be adept fighters. He scents the air and tastes the youkai stench in the air. The dogs are silent around them, ears perked and mouths salivating at the anticipation of a fight.

_ “How do we get in?”  _

Kakashi visibly startles, staring down at the small dragon curled around his wrist and hand. “Did you just--?”

“ _ I can speak to you like this in this form. Don’t look so shocked! We are a true bond. It is expected.” _

“Oh,” Kakashi says dumbly. “Well..that certainly makes things more convenient.” His focus on the tavern. There is a small line of people outside the entrance, waiting to be let in by the two guards at the door, one of which seems to be checking for invitations of some kind.

His ears pick up a small group of people traveling up the road, unseen from the tavern still, and gets an idea. “Iruka, how small can you get?”

In response, Iruka shrinks himself so small he’s barely the size of a toothpick.  _ “Will this work?” _

“Perfect,” Kakashi grins. The adrenaline is starting to build in his veins, but he keeps it in check. Iruka twirls in the air above his palm before curling around his thumb, proud. “They have these tokens, looks like an invitation. You hear the group coming up? Think you can snatch one?”

_ “Oh, that’s easy. Wait here.”  _ Iruka uncurls himself and zips away, sticking to the treeline before darting across the empty road and around the corner of the warehouse. Kakashi counts the time, and in two minutes, Iruka is back. Kakashi hears him before he sees him, and holds out his hand for him to land on. 

Iruka flies through the underbrush before increasing his size to a small coral snake, a black ring with a red stone clutched in his paws.  _ “It smells funny,” _ Iruka somments, sniffing at the jewelry.

Kakashi brings it to his nose but can smell nothing but tungsten metal and carnelian. “Where was he wearing it?”

_ “Middle right finger. Kakashi...” _ Iruka curls around his neck, licking at the cartilage of his ear. Kakashi shivers at the small scratches of his paws along his neck.  _ “If something happens, I--” _

“Don’t,” Kakashi interrupts him. He makes hand signs to the dogs and they fan out into their positions around the tavern, unseen. He raises a hand to where Iruka is curled and lightly fingers his spines, careful to avoid the poisoned tips. “Wait for my signal. Grab Naruto and meet me back at the spot.  _ Stay hidden,  _ do you understand? These people won’t let a dragon go, and we’re outnumbered. If I’m not back by sunrise, head to the hut.”

_ “Not without you,”  _ Iruka growls through their link, biting at his ear. 

“Iruka...” 

_ “Ka-ka-shiii...” _

Kakashi sighs, relenting. He waits for the right moment before circling back and coming up the road. He’d dressed for the part, wearing his “Sukea” disguise for the mission. Iruka curls in the inner pocket of his robe, right on top of his clan mark on his chest.

As they near the tavern, a loud commotion rings out ahead of them, and he watches as a man is gutted before being tossed aside. That must have been the man Iruka had taken the invitation from.

Iruka slides past his worry like it was nothing, his entire body almost vibrating with anticipation of their rescue. His scent still hasn’t quite returned to normal, and Kakashi can still catch the faint wisps of what he now knows as his  _ heat _ , and hopes that Iruka’s small form will be enough to keep it from being detected.

The two guards at the door kick the body out of the way of the door and turn to him expectantly. They are heavily armed and wear uniforms distinctly of Akatsuki, and Kakashi has to stifle a growl at just seeing them. He saunters right up to them like he owns the place, his coin purse jingling in his robes as he presents his hand for inspection. 

The guards give him a once over, checking the ring, before letting him pass.

Inside, the place is mostly empty save for a few small groups of people, and the air is heavy with opium and catnip. Kakashi is one of two others who had showed up alone. He sees some familiar people, their faces inked into the Bingo Book circulated through Fire Country. Kakashi orders himself a beer for pretense before settling at a lone table in view of the small raised platform on the side of the room, where a geisha is playing a shamisen. 

After some time pretending to amuse himself with the performance, Kakashi’s ears catch the sounds of heavy footsteps from the second floor making their way down the steps to the main room. His attention is diverted, however, when someone pulls the empty chair out from across the table and ungraciously sits themselves down. 

“Haven’t seen you around here before,” The man takes a large drink of his beer, gulping loudly, before setting the glass down loudly on the wooden table. His hair is bright orange, and his nose is pierced with multiple black rods. He wears three swords strapped to his waist and the signature colors of the Akatsuki. “Name’s Yahiko. Who are you?”

“My,” Kakashi fans himself, eyes wide, every bit of him looking offended. “Do you approach...all of your...clientele like this?”

Yahiko smirks and leans forward. “Only the pretty ones.”

Iruka shifts in his pocket and Kakashi scratches his neck to cover any movement as he takes a swig of his beer. He gives the man, Yahiko, a playful smirk, and prays that Iruka will keep  _ still.  _ “With a line like that, I’d expect to have a top-shelf in my hand already.”

Yahiko huffs out a laugh before leaning back and waving to the bartender for a drink. Kakashi breathes a mental sigh of relief, and while Yahiko’s attention is turned away, he surreptitiously palms his chest to reassure Iruka, only to find the pocket empty.

A shot of panic runs through his system, but he plays it cool as the bartender comes to their table to drop off a sealed bottle of sake with two stone cups. “Top shelf, as requested,” Yahiko pours out the drink and waits until Kakashi takes a sip before drinking his own, polite. 

They make light conversation, full of innuendos and hidden meanings Kakashi tries his best to keep track of, knowing this might be his only chance to get to wherever the auction is being held. A basement, he assumes, watching from the corner of his eye as a woman disappears behind a curtain on the other side of the room. 

All the while, his mind screams for Iruka.  _ Iruka! Where are you? _

_ “I’m fine, I just thought...”  _ The sentence cuts off, and Kakashi has to sip his drink to cover the twitch of his mouth. Little claws paw at his ankle as Iruka makes his way up his pant leg, and Kakashi breathes a mental sigh of relief.  _ “I smell him. He’s here for sure! But there are strong barriers in place, I couldn’t get through.” _

_ You need to wait for my signal! Stick to the plan! _

“Well, a fine man such as yourself doesn’t just wander in these parts for a drink...what brings you, Sukea?”

“Hmm,” Kakashi plays his role, keeping his tone light and charming, more of a high paying client than a deadly samurai capable of bringing the entire room down to its knees. “A rumor caught my attention, and I wanted to witness it myself. It’s not very often one can come face to face with such an...exotic product.”

Yahiko chuckles, peering over Kakashi’s shoulder and nodding to someone, he presumes. A bell chimes somewhere and Yahiko stands. “Come with me.”

_ “Finally!”  _ Iruka climbs the rest of the way up through Kakashi’s clothes until he’s wrapped around his neck like a golden necklace, luckily still hidden by the high collar of his robes.

Yahiko escorts him back behind the curtains and down a flight of stairs, the walls turning into packed dirt with support beams the deeper they go. Halfway down, they pass through a barrier, and Kakashi cannot fully repress the involuntary shiver that runs through him at the thick malice charged in the chakra. It seems to coalesce around the ring around his finger before letting him go without trouble.

The steps curl around twice before finally opening up to a large, open space. There are ten other “bidders,” and at least five more Akatsuki members standing around the room, each one guarding wooden boxes or barrels with numerous seals taped on them. He feels Iruka grow hot against his skin, and a strong spike of his scent shoots right through his nose and straight into his groin.  _ Shit,  _ Kakashi thinks.  _ His heat is reacting to the stress.  _

Kakashi tries his best to send calming energy towards Iruka, but knows there isn’t going to be much he can do if biology is working against them. He will just have to get this over with sooner rather than later, and hopes there isn’t anyone else with a nose as sharp as his.

“I’ll see you around, good luck,” Yahiko winks at him before leaving him and heading off to a back room. Kakashi resumes his observations, picking up whispered conversations from the other low-lives in the room, trying his best to stamp down his own displeasure at watching people grow excited at buying humans and youkai like this, as if they were things to be owned.

Before too long, Yahiko comes back out with a blue-haired woman, also dressed in reds and blacks, and makes their way to the center. The room quiets down as they take their place on the platform made out of wooden crates, and the blue-haired woman waves over a red-haired man over. 

The red-haired man rolls his barrel over, the wheels squeaking loudly along the packed dirt. Blue-hair rips off one the seals, opens the barrel, and reaches inside.

The crowd releases a collective gasp as she pulls out a small, blue-furred tiger cub with deep, black stripes and two tails, a muzzle around its snout. The youkai cub appears to be sleeping, and doesn’t move a muscle as the woman walks around a few steps and stretches its body for all to see.

Some bidders raise their hands, but not many. They move on to the next one, another cub, this time a gorilla youkai, and with each hand raised to bid he feels Iruka grow hotter and hotter.

_ Iruka,  _ Kakashi thinks loudly to him,  _ you need to calm down. We need to keep our cover for as long as possible.  _

_ “I just...Kakashi...”  _ Iruka’s voice sounded faded and farway, even connected as they were through their minds, and Kakashi’s worry only increased at the pained tone of it. 

A murmur of voices runs through the crowd, and Kakashi brings his attention back to see the blue-haired woman step back to make room for a large crate that is brought forward by a man with tattoos all over his body. The crate has many more seals taped to it, along with chains and what Kakashi assumes are magically enforced ropes. 

The crowd shifts in anticipation as the crate is opened and a drowsy looking fox kit is pulled out by the scruff of his neck. Where the other cubs were more or less taken care of, free of injuries, blood, or dirt, the kit appeared to be battered and bruised. Blood caked his blonde fur along his head and paws, and Kakashi can see patches of fur missing along his backside. Two of his three tails appear to be burnt at the ends, and his entire body is weighted down by heavy shackles locked to each of his legs and muzzle. 

Kakashi cannot hide his flinch at the burning heat of Iruka’s fury, and a bidder turns to look over at him curiously. Kakashi ignores him, and waits for his moment to start bidding.

The tattooed man smirks and displays the kit for all to see, elongating his body to show the soft belly underneath, and parting its jaws to present its sharp teeth.

The kit begins to wake up, blinking its eyes open slowly, and Kakashi can see the moment he realizes what's going on, because he begins to wiggle and squirm in the man’s arms. The man activates some sort of seal that sends a black spark of energy over it, and the kit seizes before collapsing. Kakashi faintly hears the auctioneer explain how the kitsune was perfectly tame and controllable, thanks to the use of modern magic, and can hardly bite back his own fury at the maltreatment.

He raises his hand for the half-million mark, and Yahiko seems pleased to see him finally participate from where he stood off to the side. He keeps up his offers well into three millions, and soon it is just he and one other man bidding for the highest offer. The Akatsuki members seem excited that they are finally getting the kit off of their hands, but the other bidder grows more displeased by each offer.

The man is of average height, and most of his body and face is covered by bandages and dark clothing. Two lines criss cross against his chin in a deep, dark scar, and Kakashi pretends to be a bit intimidated by his glare, but keeps up his offering. The man grows impatient, however, and stands. “That kitsune is  _ mine.  _ Twenty million. And I’ll take over the transportation.”

Iruka growls lowly on his neck, and the heat of him spikes along with his scent. 

Fuck. Kakashi stands, too, but a hand at his shoulder stops him. A blue-skinned manned with gills on his cheeks and neck smirks at him, sniffing the air, his rows of sharpened teeth shark-like and menacing in their unveiling. “Thought I caught a whiff of something good.”

Kakashi struggles against the hands that grip his wrists, growling. The other bidders nervously watch the scene unfold as Kakashi is hauled up and pulled away to the back room. They don’t get very far, as the shark youkai stops and gurgles blood out of his mouth and falls to the floor, a pool of crimson growing around him.

The room breaks out into a commotion and Kakashi watches with startled relief and horrific awe as Iruka darts from neck to neck, using the speed and force of his body to burn through jugulars, killing almost instantly. There is screaming as the bidders run for the stairs, the only exit, but Iruka stops their path with a flash of fire, increasing his body’s size to produce a formidable flame that completely encompasses the doorway.

The blue haired woman disperses in a cloud of fluttering papers as Yahiko falls to the ground. Kakashi runs over and pulls Naruto into his arms, using his chakra-blade to cut through the chains. The ropes he knows he can do nothing for, at least not now, and runs to the side tunnel he’d seen Yahiko go through earlier, yelling behind him. “Iruka!”

Iruka lets out a fearsome growl before flying in front of him to clear a pathway. Kakashi sees that he has the other cubs floating on thick clouds as they speed behind them. They follow the tunnels until they reach a set of stairs, and burst through the cellar doors in a flight of passion. 

They are in the forest surrounding the village, not yet far enough to be considered safe. Iruka growls impatiently and slides between Kakashi’s legs, increasing his size to accommodate the added weight, and takes to the sky, the cubs following. Kakashi clutches the kitsune to his chest protectively.

Kakashi hears the dogs barking distantly, and looks down to see them running through the trees, chasing at least two unknown entities following him.

Iruka jolts beneath him, and lets out a roar of fire under them. Kakashi looks down to see a large, flaming figure of a crow demon gaining altitude towards them, and curses. The crow flies speedily towards them, its sharp talons aimed forward, and Iruka drops his weight suddenly to dodge the attack, only to be pierced right through his shoulder with a long, black spear. 

Kakashi’s heart freezes at the stench of his mate’s blood, and a fire begins to roar in his veins.

They land harshly on the ground, trees and bushes crashing and cutting into skin and scale. Kakashi holds the kitsune tight against his chest as he is torn off Iruka’s back and rolls along the forest floor before coming to a stop at the base of a tree, his back hitting the bark with such force it expels the air from his lungs.

He pants, blinking his eyes against the ear-splitting pain through his head, and coughs as he stands. The dogs are barking savagely just ahead, and he makes his way through the trees to where Iruka had landed, holding Naruto to his chest.

The spear has been pulled out of Iruka’s shoulder, leaving behind a massive gaping wound, the blood running down his scales glaringly. His scent permeates the air--fire and burning wood with that overly spiced cardamom and dash of honey, and Kakashi catches that scent he knows instinctively as  _ heat _ alarmingly, wondering if it will help or hurt them at this point. 

The wind shifts and Iruka whips his large head around in Kakashi’s direction, his pupils dilating as he catches his scent. Yahiko takes advantage of the distraction and snaps a long, black chain around Iruka’s muzzle, effectively stopping him from producing fire. Iruka struggles, growling and scratching at the muzzle with his paws. 

The sound of paper fluttering behind him has Kakashi blocking a strike with his sword, and he is forced to retreat into the clearing, where the crow demon swoops in and steals the kitsune right out from his arms with a painful swipe of talons.

Iruka screeches.

Kakashi drops to his knees as the blood gushes out the two, long gashes on his chest and torso. Black flames flicker along the edges of the wounds and slowly begin to spread. He sways before being kicked to the ground by the blue-haired woman, who’s body seems to be made of paper, and sneers down at him dispassionately. “Pathetic. Who did you think you were, thinking you could get away from us?”

Kakashi swallows the blood in his throat and twists to push himself up on his hands and knees. He feels the blood boiling under his skin, his own demonic energy attempting to combat against the crow’s hell flames. He pants, feeling the charge in the air calling to him. 

He tilts his head up with a formidable glare, letting his control drop and open his chakra stores, his eye tinting blue and a jagged stripe crawling along his cheek to reveal his true nature. The woman steps back, but before she can even finish her step, Kakashi arches his sword, electricity cackling, and has her neck sliced in two.

Yahiko yells out in fury and sprints towards him, holding out a black rod like a spear. Kakashi meets him halfway with his sword drawn, the metals clashing and forming sparks in the air. Iruka roars above them, his body crashing down trees, fighting the crow demon as it swoops down with its deadly talons and black hell flames.

Kakashi growls at Yahiko, whose face is contorted in fury and pain. Kakashi grunts and pushes him back with the blade of his sword, jumping back as the spear swiftly circles around and cuts his cheek. Yahiko claps his hands together before slamming them onto the ground, where black, metallic spikes sprout from the dirt in quick succession towards his direction. Kakashi jumps back, only to land in a spiderweb seal, trapping any source of chakra that meets it.

A group of the dogs jump out and latch onto Yahiko, tearing into his skin, but it is too late--the rods have already reached their destination.

Kakashi’s lungs freeze in his throat as the spikes puncture straight through his limbs and entrap him savagely. His sword drops to the ground as pure pain rushes out through his body where the spears protrude. He feels his chakra flicker before decreasing, his youkai energy being zapped right out of him through the suppressive bonds.

He coughs up blood and looks up just as Bull tears the man’s head off, but the rods do not disappear. Behind them, on the other side of the makeshift clearing, Kakashi sees two more Akatsuki members enter, and curses internally. He tries to whistle, but his mouth is full of blood. He begins to shiver.

Iruka plummets to the ground, his body curling protectively around him, the earth rumbling below their feet. He still wears the muzzle. He looks towards Kakashi with one yellow eye and lets out a whine that crescendos into a loud roar, his body increasing in size. 

His skin and muscles bubble around the muzzle, blood spurting out from where the metal digs into and breaks his scales. For a moment, Kakashi wants to tell him to  _ stop, you’re hurting yourself! _ before the metal shatters and falls to the ground. He grows and grows, and Kakashi realizes with a distant awe that he has never seen Iruka at full size before--he is easily the size of a small mountain, and the sheer immensity of him has him regretting every doubt he’d ever had of Iruka being incapable of protecting himself.

Iruka shifts his feet, grounding himself, and lets out a deafening roar before soaring into the sky, craters forming in the ground at the force of his leap. 

There is laughter from one of the newcomers, and the crow lands next to them, it’s body made of black flames and ink. “Look at that,” the tattooed man remarks. “Abandoned like the stray dog you are,  _ Hatake.  _ Didn’t figure you’d be taken down so easily--”

A loud thunder reverberates through the land, and Kakashi feels it deep in his chest. He pants, gasping, trying to grasp onto the feeling. The rods vibrate where they hold him as the air around him thickens with a charged energy. 

Then, a flash of lightning and a tumultuous clap of thunder right inside the clearing has them all flinching back--but not Kakashi. Kakashi whips his head up to the sky to see a strike of lightning fall straight from the sky towards him, Iruka right alongside it. Or, more accurately,  _ inside _ it.

His eye widens as Iruka barrels towards him, and he braces himself for the impact, thinking this was it, this is how he died--they must have cast some sort of spell on him--only to be engulfed in pure lightning and  _ power,  _ his lungs inhaling the electricity and  _ fire _ straight into his blood, his bones.

It’s an unrelenting force, surging through him and undeniably accompanied by chakra and magic that is purely  _ Iruka,  _ and when Kakashi opens his eyes, he is towering over the lands, hundreds of feet up in the air, and his legs and hands are no longer human, but large, taloned paws. The rods that had once held him imobile shatter and drift in the airlike dust.

_ “Our paws,”  _ Iruka says. Gods, he’s  _ with  _ him,  _ in  _ him, their bodies and energies fused into one being.  _ “This is the true bond. Body, heart, and soul.” _

_ “Iruka,”  _ Kakashi thinks, unable to form words. He can barely process their new form, the power under his skin alone leaving him feeling drunk and hazy. He blinks and realizes they have  _ four  _ eyes, two of which are his own. He feels overwhelmed with it. 

_ “Just let go. Don’t think. Just feel.” _

Kakashi closes his eyes, and when they open again, one is tinted blue while the other spins red. He lets himself go.

They open their jaw wide and let out a head-splitting roar, the clouds darkening and swirling around their head. They peer down at the clearing and see the crow demon increase in size and change form--it’s flames tinted more purple than black, and much larger than before by at least five times. 

They feel the heat, the chakra and magic both of the earth around them, and let it surge from their belly into their throat, before releasing it in a loud clap of thunder.

Flames made of blue lightning surge out their jaw and flood the forest, overtaking their enemies. 

Their long neck heaves with the pure power of it--unceasing in their tirade until they can feel each chakra flame flicker and die out below them. 

The flames cease, and they huff smoke out of their mouth and nose. Below them, the landscape has grown charred and barren, trees and grass burning blue in the dimming dusk light. They decrease their size down, hearing shouts from the nearby village, and they sniff the air before decreasing size and pawing gently at a pile of ash to reveal the soot-covered fur of Naruto, who had been unaffected by the dragon fire. They pick him up with their teeth by the scruff of his neck, careful to not injure him.

Dogs bark behind them, and they turn their head to see the dogs huddled together in a circle, the grass fresh and unburned around them. They blow out a cloud through their nose and the dogs hop on. They place Naruto down with the dogs before they all turn to the sky, where the other cubs wait for them, sleeping and hidden in the clouds.

As they hide behind the cover of the clouds, they search to find those parts of themselves that are separate.  _ Not separate, _ they think.  _ Together. Brought together. One. _

_ One.  _ They let out a happy trill into the air, spinning their new body, huffing at the kitsune asleep safe and sound on the cloud next to them, and journey their way to safety.

\---

Kakashi blinks his eyes open and immediately regrets it.

He groans, bringing a hand up to cover his eyes, hoping the action will relieve the pounding in his head. He feels as if he’s having the worst hangover of his life. Something tugs at his hair and he flaps a hand at it, mumbling. “Quit it.”

Wet noses press onto him all over his body and he sighs, forcing himself to sit up with a groan. He looks around himself, squinting at the sunlight, and counts eleven dogs looking at him expectantly. Kakashi sighs before his eyes snap open again from where they’d closed, and  _ no,  _ those are  _ eight _ dogs with  _ three _ youkai cubs, and he jumps to his feet, ignoring the wave of vertigo, looking for--

“Iruka!” he sprints over to Iruka’s sleeping human form, just a few feet away, where he has curled in the tall grass, completely nude. As Kakashi crouches next to him, he notes he’s nude, too, but decides it could wait when he feels the feverish temperature of Iruka’s skin. He turns his body slowly and hisses at the would on his shoulder, remembering how he had been impaled by Yahiko. Iruka’s arms are wound tightly around the kitsune cub, Naruto, who is also deeply asleep.

Kakashi himself is completely healed, and he curses Iruka for healing him before himself, and looks around to get a better grip of their surroundings, sniffing the air. They are close to the ocean, if the salt and humidity in the air is anything to go by. The forest here looks more tropical than what he’s used to, and even the bugs swarming the air are unfamiliar. He turns back to the pack. “Did you scout a perimeter?”

“We’re on an island, pup. Not much to go around these parts--it’s pretty small. Far from any mainland,” Pakkun grumbles, licking his paw where sand sticks to it. 

The cubs watch him with varying expressions of distrust. He ignores them for now, trying to wake Iruka. “Iruka, wake up,” Kakashi pushes the hair back, patting his cheek, trying to bring him to wakefulness. He is unsuccessful. 

“Fuck,” he breathes out, leaning back on his haunches. He looks over at the cubs. “Are any of you healers?”

They stay silent. 

He sighs, mind racing. There must be some herbs around the island that can help. Salt water heals, too, so they say. “Alright,” he snaps his fingers to bring the pack to attention. “Search for these herbs. Meet me at the shore. Cubs,” the children flinch at his tone, shrinking back. “Me or the dogs. Pick and follow.” He hurries and grabs Iruka, hoisting him up with nary a wince after placing Naruto by Shiba to take by the scruff.

Kakashi isn’t entirely sure if the salt water helps the wound much, in the end, but it does wake Iruka up with a gasp and flailing of limbs. Kakashi dodges the punch to the nose but not the elbow to his chin, and his teeth clack as his jaw is jerked up, and he can feel the sudden sting of iron on his tongue from where he’d bitten down. 

“Kakashi,” Iruka says breathlessly, his eyes unfocused as they waver between them. His hands grip his arms and before they can do much else, a large wave crests and crashes over them, leaving them both sputtering with surprise. Iruka blinks owlishly at Kakashi’s naked form where he coughs and balances himself on his hands and knees, his arse bare for all to see, and laughs, unable to help himself.

Kakashi just plucks a piece of seaweed that had gotten stuck in his hair, dropping it back into the water with his thumb and forefinger.

“Naruto,” Iruka says, sobering at the memories that begin to rise to the forefront of his mind. He scrambles up out of the water, stumbling through the sand, yelling loudly over the waves. “Naruto!”

Kakashi hurries after him, his eyes never leaving the seeping hole of Iruka’s shoulder. Shiba breaks through the treeline then, pausing behind a large fern before jogging lightly to meet Iruka, Naruto splayed across his back.

Iruka falls to his knees, sand flying around him, and stretches his hands out to hold the kit. Kakashi stands back and watches, wanting to give some semblance of privacy for the intimate moment.

Iruka softly runs trembling fingers through the matted fur before beginning to bring the sleeping kit to his face to lick his wounds, little threads of golden light stitching the hurts together like new. A soft light beads through his own shoulder, too, and Kakashi breathes a sigh of relief even as his heart aches in sympathy for Iruka, who has begun to well and earnestly cry, his tears dropping into the blonde fur in his lap.

His shoulders quake with his silent sobs as he rakes his fingers down Naruto’s body and tails, trying his best to comb and undo the numerous knots. His hands spark with yellow energy as he breaks the ropes and seals on his body..“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Iruka whimpers into his neck, rocking him gently. “Naruto, Naruto.”

Kakashi slowly approaches, lightly touching Iruka’s shoulders with the tips of his fingers questioningly, a small burn lighting at their contact. Iruka melts back into his chest, twisting his knees to fall onto his bottom, his cries growing stronger as he brings Naruto closer to his own chest and face.

It’s the first time Kakashi has held Iruka in this way, and Kakashi does not pay any mind to the sand digging into his knees, the sun beating on his back, warming the skin disproportionately, the throbbing in his head and veins from over using chakra, instead focusing on on radiating comfort and love, hoping it will be enough for now as Iruka quakes in his arms.

After some time, Iruka calms and his breath slows. He gently rubs the soft muzzle of the sleeping kit in his arms as he turns his head towards Kakashi, pushing his nose into his neck, sighing. “Thank you,” he whispers. Kakashi turns him the rest of the way until he is able to properly hold him in an embrace, Naruto’s fur tickling his chin, both of their heartbeats pressed against his skin. Iruka slumps against him, rubbing his cheek absentmindedly against Kakashi’s shoulder. 

Iruka turns just a bit to press a kiss on the mating mark of Kakashi’s skin, and a deep flush runs through his body, reaching all the way down to his marrow. “You love me,” Iruka whispers against it, sounding awestruck.

Kakashi swallows, tightening his hold. He stares at the bright-white sand of the beach and the pack of dogs and cubs peering at them through the ferns at the edge of the forest. He thinks back to the past few weeks, watching through his crow eye as that ache in his chest that sprouted that fateful day at the auction grew and blossomed to this almost nebulous weight in his chest, his gut, always refusing to name it but never denying what it meant. “Yes,” he says. “I do.”

They sit on the warm beach, the sound of the waves crashing behind them, seagulls in the air taking the space between them. The pack and cubs eventually come to sit around them, forming a loose circle. The cubs are less weary than before but still cautious. Iruka smiles at them and sends out a warm puff of dragon air, to which they respond by shuffling close enough to touch, falling asleep almost immediately where they lay a head on his legs.

The sun falls well past its zenith before they move, and as the sky begins to darken and the day begins to cool, Kakashi looks out into the vast expanse of the sea, Iruka’s voice filtering through his ears as he prepares meals for the cubs and dogs, and with a fierce surge of  _ protectiveness _ that rises from deep within, dares anyone to come and try to take this away from him.

He makes his way back over to them where they crowd the fire, fish cooking on wooden sticks they’d found. Kakashi tries his best to seem as unthreatening as he can for the cubs, and they eye him with more curiosity than apprehension as the night bears on. He’s sure Iruka’s presence and friendly demeanor has more to do with it.

They munch on their meals, and Kakashi’s eye trails over them all, looking for confirmation of their good health. Iruka leans his shoulder against his, and Kakashi leans right back.

The cubs are still much too weak to do much else than to take a small walk to the shoreline and back, Iruka escorting them with the still sleeping Naruto in his arms. They find a well covered space to camp for the night, and Kakashi sets a small barrier around the area, just in case. Iruka reinforces it with his own energy, adding a concealment spell to hide it and its inhabitants from view, allowing the pack safe reentry when switching on their patrols.

Kakashi follows Iruka to the shore of the beach. He walks right behind him, their hands intertwined, as they step into the dark waters, the pale orb of the moon reflected in its rippling surface. They stand comfortably until the water reaches mid-chest, Iruka swimming close until he’s wrapped himself around Kakashi, his loose hair fanning out in the water around them.

“We...joined,” Kakashi tries to find the best word to describe the experience he’d had when he and Iruka’s physical forms seemed to join to form a whole new one. He’d only ever heard of lower-level youkai using a similar technique to increase their powers, but even then, a high number of them was needed, and they’d always formed ravenous, mindless creatures thirsting for blood, nothing close to what  _ they’d _ formed.

Iruka noses that soft spot under his ear. “Yes,” he nips at the cartilage. 

“Was that...” Kakashi tries to keep his thoughts together as their arousal begins to scent the air. “...normal?”

“No,” Iruka slowly grinds his hips down against Kakashi. “Just us. A true bond.”

He lets out a shaky breath. Kakashi’s hands climb Iruka’s back and press him close, teeth sliding along the soft skin of his neck.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Does anyone else watch Steven Universe? No? ;) 
> 
> Haha, well there you have it--Kakashi and Iruka "joining" like this is why I wanted to write this story. All the bond stuff was build up to this. Did you like it?? 
> 
> Also, I made a tumblr for my writing if you want to come say hi ~ super new and a totally inept but hey I am going to try! Thank you again for reading <3 
> 
> [tumblr](https://whenimdeadillrest.tumblr.com/)


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